Chapter 1

I’m a billionaire heir, and I used to say yes to my girlfriend no matter what.

She swiped my card like it was hers, partied until sunrise, and while I lay in a hospital bed, I was still cleaning up her messes.

She never visited me once—yet I couldn’t let her go. I would have given her everything.

Until an accident made me realize the truth: my love wasn’t real. It was hypnosis.

Her father wanted control. He bribed my psychiatrist and rigged my treatment—so the moment I saw her face, I’d lose control, give in, and hand over whatever they wanted.

All that devotion was manufactured.

Now the hypnosis is gone. She thinks I’ll keep being her ATM.

She has no idea that the first thing I did after waking up was make her—and her father—pay.

————

I sat by the window of my hospital room, propping my tablet on the bedside tray and flicking through the screen with fast, practiced swipes.

Contract revisions. Email approvals. Minutes from remote meetings. One item after another lined up for my confirmation, a quiet reminder that even if I was stuck in a hospital bed, Grant Group wouldn’t slow down for me.

I signed the last document electronically and looked up at the door.

I was waiting for Noah to bring back an investigation report.

No one knew what I was looking into. Noah understood rules better than anyone around me—he worked clean, and he kept his mouth shut.

My phone lit up. A social app notification popped like a timer.

My girlfriend, Viola, had posted again.

I tapped it, and the screen turned painfully bright: champagne foam clinging to the rim of a glass, nightclub neon, fireworks over a seaside festival. She stood in the middle of a crowd, smiling with that effortless ease, as if her happiness was the only thing worth recording.

The more I scrolled, the louder it got. She’d even uploaded a short video: the camera swept over a row of luxury shopping bags, then settled on her face.

All that noise poured through the screen, while my side of the world felt cold—as if my hospital room were just a temporary office.

I closed the app and opened our private chat. Her last message was from days ago: Heard you were in a car accident? My studio’s been crazy busy lately. I’ll visit when I’m done.

“Busy” meant shopping and partying with her friends.

More notifications popped up. This time it wasn’t social media—it was the bank.

“Authorized card purchase: $8,940. Merchant: Boutique.”  

“Authorized card purchase: $3,200. Merchant: Hotel.”  

“Authorized card purchase: $12,600. Merchant: Private club.”

Each amount was bigger than the last, like someone pressing calculator keys right next to my ear.

She didn’t have time to see me, but she had time to swipe my card—smoothly, automatically—as if that card existed to serve her.

I stared at the messages for two seconds, then closed the chat. Asking “why” didn’t matter anymore. What I needed was to count the money, line up the facts, and make the logic hold.

My name is Leon Grant, heir to Grant Group.

A lot of people treat that name like a pass that gets you through anything, as if it means you’re never supposed to get hurt and never allowed to be wrong.

Viola thought that too.

Viola Harrington—daughter of Victor Harrington, one of the group’s key shareholders. Victor carried real weight on the board.

Viola grew up used to people orbiting her, and used to saying what she wanted out loud.

Three months ago, I fell in love with her. Not the normal kind. The kind that changes decisions. The kind that lowers your standards without you noticing.

But recently I’d started to sense it: that love wasn’t natural. It wasn’t logical. It felt like a fixed program running in the background—every time she appeared, I would automatically give in.

I pulled my gaze away from the window, but my memory slid backward as if someone had grabbed it by the collar.

I first met her at a charity gala. The lighting was soft, the music low. She played the piano under the spotlight and took applause like it belonged to her.

I fell hard, instantly—and then I chased her in the most direct way possible: resources, connections, exposure, partnerships.

She opened a jewelry design studio. I brought brands to her door, stood beside her for publicity, pushed her from “some recognition” to “everyone notices.”

Before long, with her father’s support, we became an official couple.

But nothing got better. She only grew more entitled.

She stopped communicating ahead of time and started dropping demands only when she needed something. She stopped saying thank you and started treating me like a tool she could use.

Every time I agreed, my boundary moved back another inch.

I still remember one dinner with her friends. In front of the whole table, she pushed the bill toward me and said, like she was ordering a waiter, “Pay.”

I paid. Then she waved me away and kept laughing with her friends, as if I were nothing more than a credit card.

And I didn’t feel humiliated. I felt honored.

Back then, I was obsessed. Completely.

The turning point came after the accident.

Half a month ago, I was in a car crash. I lay in the hospital for days. When I woke up, my head felt like it had been struck with something blunt, and my fingers tingled with numbness.

After I recovered a little, I tried to deal with work. I unlocked my phone and saw a message—a text sent from an unknown number while I’d been unconscious.

Viola was leaning against a man. Behind them was a festival—bright lights, dense crowds.

Her face was covered in paint, colors so vivid they hurt to look at, like a face I knew and didn’t know at the same time.

The man’s posture was casual, almost possessive.

Under the photo was a line of text, short and sharp: She’s having a great time. You’re not here and it doesn’t matter.

No question who it was. Her “friend,” sending me a provocation.

I should have been furious. I should have called her and demanded answers. But when I stared at that photo, the rush I expected—the old I need her, I can’t lose her—stuttered.

In its place came a hard wave of wrongness, and nausea.

Why did I love her like this? Why had I tolerated this?

That was the first moment I suspected something was wrong with me.

I snapped out of it as the door handle turned and Noah walked in.

His suit jacket carried the chill from outside. His face was blank, all business.

He placed a thin file envelope in front of me with precise, efficient hands.

“It’s all here,” he said. “Like you asked, I looked into your therapist. He has ties to Victor Harrington.”

I opened the envelope. Inside were organized records: transfer receipts, meeting logs, and timeline comparisons.

Victor Harrington—Viola’s father.

Marcus Walsh—my therapist.

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. But if something had been quietly changing me from the inside, it wasn’t aliens. It was the monthly therapy sessions I’d attended like clockwork.

I flipped through the documents. The transfer dates, the frequency, the regular meeting cycle—none of it looked like a normal consultation.

It looked like long-term cooperation. Like someone was paying for a service.

I turned to the last page and stopped my finger on Walsh’s name. Pieces in my mind began to click into place on their own: the illogical attachment, the sudden loss of control, the way my “love” seemed to cut out after the accident—paired with this chain of payments and meetings.

“Did anyone else find out you were digging into this?” I asked.

“No,” Noah said. “I hired a private investigator. Nothing went through the group’s internal systems. No one knows you’re looking.”

Noah was professional. He didn’t ask what exactly I was investigating, or why, or what it all meant.

I drew in a slow breath and sealed the envelope.

This wasn’t the time to react emotionally. And it definitely wasn’t the time to confront my father—or Viola.

First I needed to confirm the entry point. If someone had tampered with my mind, Walsh had to be the door.

I let the air out, steady and controlled, like I was scheduling my next meeting.

“Set it up,” I said. “As soon as I’m discharged, I want to see Walsh.”

Noah didn’t ask why. He only said, “Understood.”

He turned and left. The door closed softly behind him.

The room went quiet again. I watched the light outside the window and tapped once on the tabletop, like pressing a start button.