hapter 1
Five years ago. Olivia was in a car accident while trying to save her family. She ended up in a coma and became a
vegetative patient.
Five years later, she finally woke up, only to find that everything had changed.
Her parents and brother had taken in a foster daughter named Lillian. They doted on her endlessly. Even Ethan, Olivia’s
childhood sweetheart and fiancé, looked at Lillian as if she were someone special.
They told Olivia they’d adopted Lillian because they missed her too much.
But Olivia couldn’t accept it. She insisted they send Lillian away.
And then, on the way to do just that, there was a fatal car crash. Her parents and Lillian died on the spot.
From that moment on, Sebastian and Ethan’s love for her had curdled into hatred.
They said if she hadn’t forced them to send Lillian away, those three lives wouldn’t have been lost.
So they tormented her, punished her, and Olivia bore it all, believing she was at fault.
Three years later, her body was broken. Her spirit was crushed. And the final blow came when the doctors told her she
had late–stage cancer.
She had less than a month to live.
Then one day, wandering half–conscious past a hotel, she saw them, her supposedly dead parents, her brother Sebastian,
and Ethan, seated around table.
They were celebrating Lillian’s birthday.
Lillian wore a crown, beaming happily as if she had stepped out of a fairytale.
Olivia stood outside, frozen. The sight struck her like lightning.
Before she could even process what she was seeing, she heard Ethan say, “Olivia’s already learned her lesson. How much
longer do we need to keep this act going?”
Sebastian let out a low chuckle. “Let’s wait until her birthday next month to tell her the truth. Make her sutter a little
longer. That way, she’ll think twice before trying to kick Lillian out again”
Her mother sighed. ‘Olivia’s too stubborn If we don’t teach her a proper tesson, she’ll never learn to accept Lillian
Her father nodded “After this fake death stunt, she’ll never dare go against Lillian again.
At that moment she stood frozen at the door, feeling as if all the blood had drained from her best
It was all a lie.
They hadn’t died.
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They had staged everything, just to force her to accept Lillian. They’d made her live in guilt, in grief, in pain… all for a lie.
How ridiculous.
Her own parents, her brother, and the man who had once promised to love her forever–had played her for a fool, just
for a foster daughter.
But what they didn’t know was that she didn’t have a month left.
She wouldn’t live long enough for their so–called “mercy.”
***
Inside the hotel, laughter rang out, but Olivia couldn’t bear to see any more. She stumbled away, her head flooded with
three years of nightmares.
For three years, every single day had been torment.
She dreamed over and over of that burning car, of her parents screaming for help inside the flames, and of Lillian’s
terrified eyes.
So she took every punishment Ethan and Sebastian gave her.
She endured Ethan choking her night after night, repeating, “You killed them.”
She endured Sebastian locking her in a room filled with candlelight and their smiling portraits for three days and nights.
whispering apologies until her voice broke.
She endured copying the words “I was wrong” over and over until her fingers bled.
And yet, none of it had been real.
She staggered back home and vomited blood the moment she stepped through the door.
In the bathroom, she collapsed over the toilet, blood and tears pouring out in waves.
Her hands shook as she reached for the painkillers. She swallowed them dry, flushed away the blood, and had barely
stood upright when the door burst open.
“I’ve been calling you–what, playing dead now? Who are you trying to fool? Sebastian stood in the doorway, his face ice
cold “Are you trying to dodge your punishment again?
Ethan frowned. “Why are you on the floor?”
Olivia didn’t answer. She just looked up with dull eyes. “What is it this time?
The two men exchanged a glance.
Ethan said lightly, “Go to Maplewood and get Vivi some warm cinnamon rolls
Olivia tugged at the corner of her mouth and gave a bitter smile
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by a scooter and you’re still standing here without a scratch?
He grabbed her wrist. “Since you love to lie so much, let’s make that lie come true. Drag her to the back lawn.”
Two bodyguards immediately flanked her, dragging her out to the lawn behind the estate like she was nothing more
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