Herbert?

I forced my eyes open and pushed myself up. When I saw who had come, my nose stung with tears.

Herbert looked at me and quickened his steps.

"Vic, don't move!"

"Are your legs any better?"

I shook my head. If Silvia hadn't been in the room, I would have told him one thing plainly.

Because the moment my father learned my legs could heal, he'd cripple them a second time.

I reached out and held on to him, like someone who'd fallen into a pit and finally found a way out.

Silvia called out, "Herb, sis is going to be fine. Don't worry."

She walked over, her eyes fixed on Herbert with open longing. As if I couldn't tell she wanted my boyfriend too.

"Silvia, you can go now."

"I don't want to see you. Before he got here, you were laughing at me in the most mocking tone."

Silvia's face crumpled with hurt. "I did not. Why do you always slander me, sis?"

"We may not be sisters by blood, but I never once laughed at you!"

She'd barely finished when my father and stepmother came back with a tray of plain porridge and side dishes.

Silvia quickly wiped her eyes and squeezed a meek little smile onto her face.

"Daddy!"

"Silvie, why are you crying?"

Diana set down the porridge and hurried over to hold her.

"I'm only crying because I feel so sorry for sis."

My father nodded, satisfied, then reached out and stroked her head.

"I've always known you're a good girl."

I couldn't stand another second in the same room with them.

I gripped Herbert's hand and looked up at him, pleading. "I want to be discharged. But I don't want to go home."

"You could take me to your place—"

"Vic, you're a girl. You can't live with a man before you're married."

I turned my head and looked at my father, cold. Whether he cared about my reputation or had something else in mind, we both knew the truth.

Herbert tightened his hand around mine, and the warmth of it gave me strength.

"Sir, Victoria Henson is the only woman I'll ever want in this life. There's nothing here that could ruin anyone's reputation."

"She'll be my wife sooner or later. My home is her home too."

In that moment, the emotion pushed the grief clean out of my heart.

Silvia, hearing Herbert's words, went dark and twisted in the face.

With Herbert saying that, my father could hardly object.

The weight on my chest finally lifted, and hope for that Ivy League place began to come back to me.

After ten days in the hospital, I was finally able to leave.

My left leg could bear weight with a crutch, but the right one was worse and still needed time.

Herbert told me to rest and heal without worrying, said he'd get in touch with the university's dean, and that once my legs were better I could go back to school.

When I heard that, I cried from happiness.

When my father and the others came to see me, they kept staring at my legs.

It scared me enough that I shrank behind Herbert, and afraid I'd start panicking again, he quickly had a bodyguard help me back to my room to rest.

I thought I'd finally have some peace. I didn't expect Silvia to push the door open and walk straight in.

"What do you want? Get out!"

"Oh please. You think having Herbert around gives you a spine?"

"Let me tell you, it won't help you."

Then she lifted her head and swept her gaze around my room, the greed in it impossible to hide.

"Victoria Henson, everything you have right now is just a dream."

"Because very soon, I'll be taking your place. Not only will I be Mrs. Mason, I'll get Daddy's company too."

Seeing how sure of herself she was, unease rose in my chest.

But then I thought of how much Herbert loved me. He would never throw me away.

She read exactly what I was thinking, and laughed out loud.

"What an idiot."

"Facing an opponent as brainless as you, I've lost even the urge for revenge."

With that, she left.

But I only grew more uneasy, so I took my crutch and went to find Herbert.

I never expected that at the door of the study, I'd hear him talking with my father.

"If you'd been a little more ruthless last time, you could have snapped her legs clean off."

“We wouldn't be stuck like this, watching her legs heal up so she can just go back to that Ivy League school like nothing happened.”

“Silvia's cried over it more than once.”

My heart seized. I didn't dare make a sound.

Then came Herbert's voice through the gap in the door.

“If she hadn't saved my mother's life, I never would have agreed to something this insane.”

“You have no idea what it does to me, crippling Victoria's legs. It's like driving a knife into my own chest.”

My eyes went wide with disbelief. I clapped a hand over my mouth as the tears slid down without a sound.

I couldn't stop shaking. Only then did I understand that the last thing I'd trusted to save me was the pit itself.

The conversation went on inside, and I stood there, body drawn tight, and kept listening.

“So what do we do now? Her legs are nearly healed!”

“Both of them are my daughters. But Silvia isn't as strong as Victoria, and she isn't as sharp, not half as clever.”

“If Victoria would just give up on that university, I would never break her legs over Silvia……”

My nails dug deep into my palm, but I felt no pain. Maybe I'd gone numb.

That my legs were healing, and that I still meant to go back to school, I had told only Herbert.

I never imagined they were all in this together.

What now?

How was I supposed to save myself?

“Don't worry.”

“Since I owe Silvia my mother's life, I'll see her wish through for her.”

Her wish was to destroy me. I couldn't stay there another second.

Gripping my crutches, I edged toward the door, heart pounding with fear.

No one noticed me slip away. But once I was outside, I had no idea where to go.

Standing at the crossroads, staring into that endless crowd, I finally understood that I had no home.

I took out my phone, only because I remembered what my mother had told me before she died.

“Victoria, if you're ever in trouble, go to your uncle.”

“Call this number. Tell him you're my child, and he'll come help you.”

Could I even trust that anymore?

But in the state I was in, this number was all I had.

The call connected, and a cold, commanding voice came through “Sis?”

My breath came fast. Anxious and shaking, I answered him.

“My mom is dead. I'm her daughter. She said if I was ever in trouble, I should call you.”

The other end went silent. But I could feel the danger coming off him.

When he still said nothing, I hung up.

Then, off in the distance, I spotted Herbert's men nearby. Were they here to take me?

I couldn't let them catch me. I hurried to hide.

Night was coming on. Hungry and parched, I limped my way to the cemetery.

I didn't know where else to go. Only coming to my mother made me feel safe.

If her spirit was watching, seeing her own child treated this way by her father, how much would it hurt her.

I found my mother's grave, sat down, and pressed close against the headstone.

But even then, Herbert's men found me.

They grabbed me and forced me back home.

The moment I walked in, I saw Silvia sitting on the sofa, legs crossed elegantly, and my stepmother sipping tea with a smug smile on her face.

My father looked straight at me.

“I'll ask you just one thing.”

“Are you dead set on going to that university?”

I said nothing, and I didn't look at him. My eyes fixed on Herbert instead.

He was sitting right beside Silvia. And on Silvia's ring finger was the couple's ring that had once been mine.

In that moment, there was nothing left for me to not understand.

“I really was a fool, to have believed you actually loved me!”

Herbert hesitated before he spoke.

“Victoria, be reasonable, all right?”

“Give up on the university, and the place as Mrs. Mason is still yours.”

“Ha. If I really gave it up, your family would look down on me, and I'd only end up worse off.”

I turned to my father “I don't understand why you're this biased, why you'd hurt your own child for one who isn't even blood…”

“Shut up. You're in no position to lecture me!”

“I'll ask you one last time. Will you give it up or not?”

“If you're too stubborn to see sense, then I'll break your legs myself.”

I raised my hand and wiped away the last drop of what was supposed to be a daughter's tears, and told him, steady as anything.

“I'd die before I give up!”

My father exploded into fury.

“Somebody break her legs. I want her to never walk again.”

In an instant, several bodyguards rushed forward. My heart went to ash, and I closed my eyes.

But right then, the door was blasted open, and a group of trained men in black stormed in.

“You spineless coward. Have you lost your mind? You'd dare lay a hand on my niece?”