Sarah Andrews never imagined that her boyfriend's poverty was all a lie.

For five years, she gave up everything. She sold her belongings, left behind her old life, and moved into a rusting shipping container in a desolate vineyard.

She worked twenty-hour days, barely scraping by, all to help him pay off his so-called debts.

Then one day, dizzy from yet another plasma donation, she stumbled into a hospital corridor and saw something that shattered everything.

Harvey Jameson. But he wasn’t alone.

He was holding her foster sister, Zoey Stevens, like she was made of glass, guiding her gently into the obstetrics wing. Behind them trailed the vineyard manager and a pair of creditors, heads bowed like loyal knights.

Then Sarah faintly heard Harvey say, “Your health comes first, Zoey. I’ll take care of things with Sarah. We’re down to the last prank. Just waiting for her to pay off the debt and get kicked out.”

A hundred pranks. That was the promise.

Not love. Not loyalty. Just a long, drawn-out con to destroy her.

The illusion shattered in one clean, brutal moment.

There had never been shared dreams. No sacrifice. No 'us.'

Only betrayal.

As a storm ripped through the vineyard that night, Sarah climbed to the hilltop, soaked and shaking, with lightning crashing overhead. She jumped.

Sarah gave them what they craved. Her silence. Her disappearance.

But behind her, the man she had once loved stood frozen in the rain, hands empty, grief etched across his face, raw and real, but far too late.

Harvey had broken her.

And when they met again, he couldn’t bring himself to let her go.

…

“Careful,” Harvey said gently. “You’re pregnant now, Zoey. You’ve got to be extra cautious.”

Then he looked up at him with a sweet smile. “Still thinking about Sarah? Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. I promised you a hundred pranks, remember? I’m not backing out now.”

Sitting just down the corridor, Sarah thought she must have misheard.

Earlier that day, she had told Harvey she would be out late selling blood. He didn’t say anything in return.

He had just smashed a plate and remained silent, as gloomy as ever.

After Harvey's failed investment left him with tens of millions in debt, he spiraled into depression. The doctors noted that he was unstable, withdrawn, and prone to sudden outbursts.

She had believed them. Believed he was broken.

So how could he now be sitting here, speaking so gently to someone else?

Then she heard her name. And just like that, everything crumbled.

She observed Harvey holding Zoey close as they entered the OB/GYN department, with the vineyard manager and a creditor following behind them.

One of them carried their bags.

The other held an umbrella to shield them from the sun.

When Sarah finally got a clear look at Zoey’s face, she froze.

Zoey was smiling, gently caressing her belly. “Sarah’s technically my sister, I guess. I never thought she’d hate me this much. She bullied me growing up. I put up with it. But I never imagined she’d steal my graduation project and delay my graduation. Honestly, Harvey, I don’t think I’d have made it if you hadn't been there for me.”

Harvey squeezed her hand. “Don’t say that. Someone like Sarah, I don’t even know how you still considered her family.”

“Don’t worry,” he added with a calm tone in his voice. “I’ll make her pay.”

Sarah sat there, stunned. Her chest tightened like something was sitting on it.

She reached into her pocket without thinking and brushed her fingers against a folded slip of paper.

It was the hundred dollars she’d gotten that morning for selling 2000cc of her blood.

Five years...

Five years of scraping by, living on bread and porridge.

Five years of back-breaking work to chip away at Harvey’s debt.

Five years of believing they were partners in pain.

And to Harvey, it had all been a long-running prank.

Sometimes, when betrayal cuts deep enough, the mind shuts down. It couldn't process everything at once.

Still listening to them, Sarah sat frozen as Harvey and Zoey walked into the examination room.

Behind them, the vineyard manager, Joseph Merritt, chatted away like it was casual gossip.

“Miss Zoey, don’t worry. Sir Harvey’s already given the orders. That woman, Sarah Andrews? She doesn’t have a clue. Doesn’t even realize Red Maple Vineyard belongs to Mr. Jameson now. She’s out there every day picking grapes like some stray mutt.”

Joseph chuckled, clearly entertained. “Oh, and just last week, I laid a few snakes along her usual path down the vineyard hill. You should’ve seen her—screaming, crying, calling out for Sir Harvey like a lost little kid in a grocery store.”

Then he laughed and continued mocking Sarah. “She had no idea the whole thing was a setup. Sir Harvey was watching it all on the surveillance feed.”

Zoey stifled a laugh, covering her mouth.

Across the hospital room, Sarah sat as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over her. Her whole body went cold.

She remembered that night.

It was past 3 a.m., and she had been stumbling down the vineyard hill, utterly drained, barely able to keep her flashlight steady. Then she fell straight into a shallow pit crawling with snakes.

Her hands trembled so hard she lost grip of the flashlight. It hit the ground and went dark.

At that moment, panic swallowed her whole.

She screamed Harvey’s name over and over, even though deep down, she already knew he wouldn’t come. But saying his name was the only thing keeping her anchored to reality, preventing her from falling apart completely.

She never imagined it had all been planned. That her worst fear had been twisted into some sick joke.

When things between them first started to unravel, she once told him about a childhood memory of how terrified she had been of snakes after her grandmother showed her a jar of snake wine.

For days, she couldn’t sleep unless her grandmother stayed with her.

She had shared that story with him. Her fear. Her vulnerability.

And Harvey had used it against her.

Now, finally seeing him for who he really was, Sarah let out a slow, unsteady breath.

It was time to leave.

Harvey’s expression tensed for just a moment.

Zoey noticed. She leaned in gently and asked, “Are you feeling okay?”

He gave a subtle shake of his head, but before he could answer, the creditor beside him scoffed with disdain.

“It’s gotta be that woman, Sarah,” the man said, voice edged with contempt. “Always feeding Mr. Jameson God-knows-what.”

The creditor snorted, then added with a twisted admiration, “Good thing Mr. Jameson thought ahead. Pretended to be emotionally unstable, smashed a few dishes. Gave him an excuse to avoid her food. Though somehow, he still ended up eating a lot.”

The creditor tsked, shaking his head. “That woman’s up to no good.”

'Up to no good?' Sarah let out a bitter, silent laugh.

When Harvey first got sick, she’d run all over the city looking for hospitals that would take him. She could barely afford to feed herself, but never skipped a day buying his medication.

Later, when they were both living in that drafty, leaking shipping container on the grape vineyard, she survived on scraps of burnt loaves soaked in cold water.

Vegetables were a rare luxury. And whenever Sarah managed to get her hands on a few drops of oil or a scrap of meat, it always went into Harvey’s bowl. Always.

Harvey never knew that she would get on her knees and eat the leftovers straight off the floor whenever he smashed a bowl or plate during one of his outbursts. She was careful not to waste a single drop.

Now, that food was being dismissed as 'God-knows-what.'

A wave of exhaustion hit her so deeply that it felt like it reached her bones.

With that, Sarah didn’t spare the group another glance. She just turned and walked away, returning to the estate alone.

After her grandmother passed, Sarah was taken in by the Stevens family, which, on paper, made Zoey her sister. Her grandmother had said the Stevens were distant relatives and they would look after her.

And in a way, they did.

But there was never warmth. Never affection. Just an obligation.

The Stevens treated her as if she were invisible.

Conversely, Zoey seized every opportunity to torment her. Things only began to change when Sarah’s talent for design started to emerge. Even then, her position in the house hardly improved. At best, she was the one doing Zoey’s work.

Sarah had truly believed Harvey was the only light left in her life after her grandmother died.

He stated that he had fallen for her at first sight, was serious, and that she was the one.

Young love was like this—messy, intense, fast, and burned bright. She’d fallen hard.

And even after he lost everything, Sarah had stayed.

She never thought the truth would be this cruel.

So cruel that now, curled up inside the same rusting shipping container that had once been her safe place, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

But sorrow didn’t keep her company for long.

As she wiped her face, her fingers brushed against a folded sheet of paper tucked in the corner of a drawer.

She unfolded it slowly.

Harvey’s handwriting stared back at her.

[Lie to Sarah about the debt.]

[Make Sarah do illegal labor at the vineyard.]

[Pretend to be sick so Sarah has to search for medicine all night and still work the next day.]

[Set up snake traps along Sarah’s path down the vineyard hill.]

Ninety-seven entries in total. Harvey’s full prank list.

She stared at it, forcing herself to read each one like punishment.

Every night, she sat beside him, consumed with worry for his health.

Every day, she forced herself to traverse the city for medicine whenever he coughed.

Yet, all of it was merely part of a game.

Only three pranks remained on the paper for Harvey to keep his promise to Zoey. It was overwhelming her.

Then, Sarah remembered that Harvey had always told her not to touch his things in this tiny container.

Maybe he hadn’t even bothered to hide the list. Maybe he just assumed she’d never dare look.

Her fingers stopped at number eighty-five.

[Pretend to be seriously ill and on the brink of death. Mix the land transfer agreement for her grandmother’s grave into a surgical consent form and trick her into signing it.]

Sarah’s vision tilted.

She remembered that day.

Harvey had been fine. Then suddenly, he collapsed.

At the hospital, the doctor said his condition was critical.

She had panicked. Hands trembling, vision blurry, she’d signed the forms pushed in front of her without reading. She was too scared that even a moment’s hesitation might cost him his life.

She had no idea it was all planned. Staged.

While she ran around, begging for money, terrified he might not make it through surgery, Harvey had been using his own life as leverage to trick her into signing over the land her grandmother was buried on.

Her chest clenched so tightly she could barely breathe. It was like someone had dropped a lead weight on her lungs.

She couldn’t let her grandmother be disturbed. Not even in death.

Her grandmother had been her whole world, and she was the only one who truly loved her. Even when illness had drained her body, she still found the strength to go to the Stevens family and beg them to take Sarah in.

And now, even her resting place had been violated. How could she allow her peace to be disturbed after death?

Sarah sat there, her breath shallow, the paper trembling in her hands.

It was like waking up from the worst dream of her life. Only this wasn’t a dream.

She pulled herself together, changed her clothes, and ran out the door.

It hadn’t been that long since it happened.

Maybe… maybe she still had a chance to plead.

Sarah spotted Harvey in the office at the very top of the vineyard estate. From the day she arrived, she had been repeatedly warned to stay away from that restricted area. She never imagined that Harvey himself had put up those boundaries, deliberately keeping her at a distance.

When they first met, he came across as just another college student—humble, quiet, unassuming. Nothing about him suggested wealth or influence, so she had naturally assumed he came from a modest home.

But now she saw it. He’d been lying from the start, hiding who he was, keeping her at arm’s length the whole time.

She pushed past the guards who scrambled to stop her. Harvey’s gaze darkened the moment he saw her.

Zoey was seated beside him, giving Sarah a lazy, amused once-over. She looked exactly how Zoey liked her: disheveled, broken, pathetic. She had never liked Sarah. Not even from the beginning, especially after learning the real reason Sarah had ended up in her home.

As Sarah looked at Harvey, she gritted her teeth and dropped to her knees.

“Harvey,” she said, her voice tight, “if you want to mess with me, fine. But my grandma was the only family I had left. Can you return the transfer agreement to me? Please don’t move her grave. I’m begging you.”

Even when life had knocked her down, Sarah had never begged anyone.

Only twice.

Once, to a doctor, begging them to save Harvey’s life.

And now this.

Harvey’s brow twitched. For a moment, it looked like he might actually say something.

But before he could, Zoey cut in sweetly. “Harvey, help me pick a ring for the charity gala. That fifty-carat pink diamond you gave me last week? I think it’s perfect.”

Then she leaned in close, her voice barely above a whisper. “Harvey, only three more to go.”

Harvey noticed the signal but never looked back at Sarah. He turned away as if she didn't exist.

Sarah trembled. Her body still hadn’t recovered from the snake trap, and she had just sold blood again. She could barely stay upright.

But the two of them sat there, warm, close, and content, like she was invisible.

Sarah told herself it didn’t matter. She should let it go.

After all, she knew now that none of Harvey's warmth, the smiles, or promises had been real. Every bit of it had been calculated.

Still, knowing that didn’t make it any easier.

She sat there watching Harvey hold Zoey’s hand, watching them pick out rings she wouldn’t have dared to dream of even in her most extravagant fantasies.

She dropped her head, forcing down the sting in her eyes.

He handed out pink diamonds like candy while she worked under the scorching sun, picking grapes and selling her blood to buy Harvey medicine.

“Harvey, what is this?” Zoey’s voice rang across the room. “This cord is so ugly! It’s chafing your wrist. Let’s just burn it.”

She casually slipped off the knotted cord bracelet with the charm and reached for the lighter on the table.

Sarah froze.

That bracelet was her grandmother’s.

Before thinking about it, she lunged forward and yanked it from Zoey’s hand.

Zoey stumbled back in surprise. Her eyes immediately welled with tears.

“Sarah, I know you don’t like me,” she said, her voice trembling. “You always try to take everything from me. Please stop bullying me… I’m scared.”

For a second, Sarah almost believed her.

She had never truly understood why Zoey hated her so much. For years, she thought staying quiet and innocent would be enough to keep the peace.

But now, with Harvey right there, she opened her mouth without thinking.

“I didn’t—”

Suddenly, a sharp crack of shattering porcelain broke the moment as a teacup smashed against the tile beside her, and in the same instant, a searing pain shot through her temple.

Warm blood began to slide down the side of her face. Dazed, she reached up, her fingers coming away sticky, while her clothes, soaked from the grape juice, clung to her skin, cold and damp.

Harvey looked down at her like she was nothing.

“This isn’t the place for your tantrums, Sarah,” he said, flat and cold. “Zoey’s too kind to lay a hand on you, but I’m not.”

Sarah blinked, stunned, as the man before her felt like a complete stranger.

Once, they had shared real moments. Harvey had no hidden identity back then, and she had no idea he came from unimaginable wealth.

In that tiny rented room where they used to talk about the future, he would look at her with eyes so tender she truly believed she could lose herself in them.

The tears she’d tried so hard to hold back finally broke free.

For a second, Harvey’s face shifted. It softened, like he might be hesitating.

Then Zoey let out a soft whine. “Harvey, I’m not feeling great. I wonder if it’s the baby…”

Her voice snapped Harvey out of it. Without a word, he turned away from Sarah and lifted Zoey into his arms.

Before walking out, he turned to Joseph.

“Have her kneel here,” he ordered. “You keep watch.”

“Yes, sir,” Joseph responded instantly.

Sarah didn’t move. She held the charred bracelet tight against her chest. The porcelain edges cut into her skin, but she didn’t even notice.

Only when Harvey’s silhouette finally disappeared did the last of her strength drain away.

The world tipped sideways.

And she collapsed.