Chapter 1
"Brielle, I need money... My bone cancer is worse. Without treatment, I won't make it past next month."
For Cole's words, I gave up everything—my billionaire father, my inheritance, my name. I became a crime scene cleaner, the most degrading job in New York.
Twenty hours a day, I scrubbed blood and rotting flesh off apartment floors. I even sold my own blood. All to save the man I loved.
One million dollars. Finally, I had it.
I rushed to the five-star hotel, clutching the warm check in my trembling hands. Pushed open the presidential suite door.
And froze.
Cole—healthy, glowing, dressed in an expensive suit—knelt before Delilah, New York's newest socialite. A diamond ring glittered between his fingers.
"Babe, that corpse-smelling idiot sent more money today," he laughed. "That bag you wanted? Let's go buy it right now."
The check fell from my hands.
Something inside me shattered.
And something darker took its place.
Brielle's POV
December in New York. Cold enough to freeze your bones solid.
I stood outside the Manhattan Plaza Hotel, staring at my hands—cracked, raw, blood still crusted under my nails from the crime scene I'd cleaned hours ago.
"Worth it, Brielle. All worth it." I shoved my hands into the pockets of my ratty secondhand parka, clutching that check like a lifeline.
One million dollars.
Three years. Twenty hours a day in those godforsaken crime scenes, breathing in the stench of rotting corpses, scrubbing brain matter off walls. Last month I even sold my blood twice on the black market. All for this number.
Cole had stage-four bone cancer. The doctor said there was a new targeted gene therapy in Switzerland—his only shot.
For him, I'd walked away from home three years ago. Cut off all contact with my father—Alexander Stratford, the man who controlled half the American economy. Because Dad had looked Cole dead in the eye and said, "That kid's a con artist. Always has been, always will be."
I wanted to prove him wrong. Prove that real love could conquer anything.
So I jumped into the gutter. Willingly.
Today was the deadline. Cole's attending physician said his condition was getting worse—we had to pay NOW. But his phone kept going straight to voicemail. I went to the hospital. The nurse gave me this weird look and said Cole had been discharged days ago.
I tore through the city looking for him. Finally tracked his phone to this five-star hotel in Manhattan.
"Maybe he wanted... one last look at the city before..." My pulse raced. I slipped past security during shift change and hit the button for the penthouse.
The elevator dinged open.
Not a hospital room. Not a deathbed goodbye.
A PARTY.
Deafening jazz, blinding champagne towers, a room packed with designer-clad socialites.
The air reeked of expensive perfume. After three years of corpses and bleach, I was gonna be sick.
I scanned the crowd.
Then my world collapsed.
Cole—healthy, glowing, sharp in a black tux—raised a glass of whiskey, his arm wrapped around a woman in a red gown.
Delilah Jenkins. New York's rising socialite darling.
"So wait, Cole—" Delilah's voice dripped venom, "did your little dumpster-diving girlfriend really send you another ten grand?"
Cole smirked. "Oh yeah. Total idiot. I just cough twice, throw in some 'baby I'm dying' and 'please marry me' crap, and she runs off like my personal ATM."
He took a sip. "You guys don't even know. Her JOB is literally cleaning up dead bodies. Every time she showed up, I could SMELL her from across the room—rotting flesh, cheap bleach. God, I nearly threw up."
Everyone burst out laughing.
"Oh my God, you're TERRIBLE!" Someone whistled. "Seriously though, when are you dumping the crime scene janitor?"
"Probably after the IPO next month, I guess."
Cole kissed Delilah's forehead.
"I mean, thanks to Brielle's whole 'selfless sacrifice' thing, my startup capital's looking REAL good. But the woman who actually gets to stand beside me and share the success?"
He pulled out a velvet box and dropped to one knee.
"Only you, babe. My future wife."
Five-carat pink diamond.
"Marry me, Delilah."
"YES! Oh my God, YES!"
I stood there in the shadows, drowning.
Bone cancer. Treatment. Switzerland. All lies.
He'd taken my money—earned on my knees in blood and brain matter, earned selling my BLOOD—and used it to start a company. To buy another woman a ring.
The love I believed in, the man I nearly killed myself to save—he was a snake.
"So..." My voice came out hoarse, then louder, "So it was all fake. Every. Single. Word."
I shoved past a server and walked straight into the center of the hall.
The music stopped. Everyone stared.
Cole's smile died. "Brielle?! What the HELL are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know—just watching your miraculous recovery." I bit back tears. "So what happened to your cancer, Cole? I thought you couldn't even get out of bed?"
Delilah wrinkled her nose, waving her hand like she was swatting flies.
"Ugh, Cole, THIS is your corpse-cleaner girlfriend? Jesus, she actually SMELLS like a sewer. Where's security? Like, how did they even let this... homeless person in here?"
"Babe, babe, don't worry. I'll handle it, okay?"
Cole turned to Delilah, voice all soothing.
Then he looked at me. Eyes like ice.
"Brielle, look—since you already know, I'm done pretending. We're OVER. You don't fit in my world, alright? I'm about to be the CEO of a publicly traded company. And you? You're just bottom-feeding trash scraping brains off floors for minimum wage."
"Trash?"
I laughed and yanked the crumpled check from my pocket, throwing it in his face.
"Your precious CEO startup capital? Every single DOLLAR came from this trash! I sold my BLOOD for you! I cleaned CORPSES for you! And you just—you used it to buy HER a ring?!"
The check fluttered to the carpet.
Cole saw the number. His pupils shrank.
His face went red.
"You GAVE it to me! Willingly! What, did I put a gun to your head?" He stepped forward and SHOVED my shoulder. "Get the hell OUT! Don't ruin my proposal!"
