Chapter 2

"I have to go back." My teeth were still chattering uncontrollably.

"What? The bastard threw you to the fishes for another woman, and you still want to go crawling back to him?"

The man tapped the steering wheel lightly, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.

"I didn't bust my ass fishing you out of that water just to watch you go back on a suicide mission."

"No, I have to go back." I shrugged off the heavy coat and stood up.

"My mother's ashes, and the only thing she left me—a silver cross necklace—are still at Victor's hillside estate."

I walked right up to him. "That's where I draw the line. I'm getting them back, even if it kills me."

He went silent for a moment, gave me a long, hard look, and didn't try to stop me again.

Later, I faked a story about being rescued by local fishermen. Dragging my fever-ridden body, I made it back to that lavish estate—a place that now felt as cold as a tomb.

The moment I pushed the door open, a suffocating wave of heavy perfume hit my face.

Lilia was wearing my favorite silk nightgown, lounging lazily on the velvet chaise lounge that used to be mine.

In her hands, she was casually playing with the jewelry box holding my mother's necklace.

Seeing me standing in the doorway—soaking wet and looking like absolute hell—a flash of utterly disappointed malice crossed her eyes. But the moment she opened her mouth, her voice was as fragile as a startled deer, her eyes instantly welling with tears.

"Elena? Oh, thank God, you're alive! I was so scared the men Victor sent to fish you out were too late..."

"Who gave you the right to touch my things?"

Showing zero guilt for completely taking over my life, she just gently stroked the box.

"Your room just looked so lonely, sister. I was worried this box would gather dust, so I brought it over to wipe it down for you."

"Give it back." I couldn't be bothered to play along with her sickening little act. I walked straight toward her to grab the box.

My hand hadn't even grazed her, but Lilia suddenly shrieked and jerked backward violently, as if I had shoved her hard.

"Ah! Please don't hit me!"

Along with her exaggerated flinching came a sharp CRACK. The jewelry box smashed hard against the floor.

The silver cross necklace tumbled out, the chain snapped clean in two.

Lilia immediately covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry! I really just wanted to keep it safe for you. Please don't look at me like that, you're scaring me..."

Right on cue, Victor strode into the room.

He took in my paper-white face and my soaking wet, pathetic state. A barely noticeable flicker of shock crossed his eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it came.

"Victor!" Lilia threw herself into his arms like a drowning woman grabbing a lifeline, trembling all over. "My sister was so mad at me the second she got back! I was just trying to help her clean her necklace, and she... she tried to hit me..."

Victor instinctively wrapped his arm tight around Lilia's waist, soothing her with a heartbroken look before shooting a glare at me that was practically dipped in ice.

"Elena, are you quite done with this tantrum?"

"I promised I'd have my men pull you out of the water, and here you are, alive and well. And the very first thing you do when you get back is attack your sister?"

"Do you have any idea how traumatized Lilia was because of you? The doctor said she needs absolute rest! It's just a cheap broken chain. She was nice enough to hold onto it for you, and you come back acting like a total lunatic over it?"

If this were the old me, I would have screamed my lungs out, telling him that it was the only piece of my mother I had left.

But now? I just found the whole thing absurdly laughable.

The man who once held a bowl of hot soup in his bare hands for me in the slums, who promised to give me a home... was now trampling all over my dignity to comfort a woman whose mouth was full of lies.

"Whatever you say." I crouched down calmly, picking up the snapped cross and the splintered pieces of wood one by one, clutching them tightly in my fist.

Wood splinters pierced my palm, drawing blood, but I couldn't feel the pain at all.

"Even if I fixed it, you'd just destroy it again anyway."

I stood up, didn't spare them a single glance, and turned to leave.

Victor's irritated voice chased after me: "Elena, watch your tone when you speak to the woman who saved my life!"

I didn't even break my stride. I just dropped a single word over my shoulder: "Fine."

Back in the guest room, I pressed the broken necklace to my chest. Reaching into a hidden compartment under the bed, I pulled out a burner phone.

It rang for exactly one second before it was picked up.

"Got what you want? Need me to send somebody to pick you up?"

"Get me a passport and a boat ticket." I slipped my wedding ring off my finger and set it on the vanity. "As fast as possible."