A week later, I was released.

Not because Kieran had a change of heart, but because Seraphina was out of the hospital, and he was in good spirits.

The sunlight was blinding the moment I stepped out of the detention cell.

The butler handed me an itemized bill.

"Miss Aurora, this is for your treatment, food, and lodging during your time in the dungeon. Lord Kieran has already settled it for you."

Looking at the astronomical figure, all I could do was laugh.

He imprisons and tortures me, then expects gratitude?

"Tell him I'll repay it."

I returned to Moonlight Tower one last time and found most of my things were gone.

That room had been completely transformed into Seraphina's "recovery suite."

Without pausing, I went straight to Christie's auction house in the city center.

During my treatment, Dr. Vane had let slip a crucial piece of information: to fund Seraphina's rare supplements and to punish my "disobedience," Magnus had decided to auction off a collection of family heirlooms.

Among them was the true Blood Moon ruby necklace.

So Seraphina had lied that day. The necklace wasn't with her but with Magnus, who was solely driven by profit.

The auction house was opulent, a hub for New York's elite.

I sat in a corner, wearing sunglasses.

Before coming, I'd sold off all my assets, raising fifty million.

It should have been enough. I had to get my mother's last possession back.

"Next, we have lot number 8, from the ancient Nocturne family, the legendary Blood Moon ruby…"

The auctioneer's voice boomed with excitement.

The necklace lay in its black velvet box, like a drop of solidified blood, radiating a mournful glow.

It was the only heirloom my mother had left me.

"Starting bid, five million dollars."

"Ten million," someone called out.

"Twenty million."

The price kept climbing.

I gripped the armrests of my seat, my fingernails digging in.

Finally, I raised my paddle:

"Fifty million."

But someone immediately countered:

"Sixty million."

A familiar voice echoed from the VIP box on the second floor.

I looked up.

Kieran was seated there, a wine glass in his hand, appearing utterly at ease.

Seraphina was beside him, playing the role of the demure woman.

He was buying the necklace?

A faint, almost absurd flicker of hope ignited within me.

Perhaps… he was buying it to give back to me? As an apology? After all, it was my mother's heirloom.

"Lord Kieran bids sixty million! Are there any higher offers?"

The hall erupted in murmurs.

Sixty million dollars for a necklace. It was an exorbitant sum.

"Sixty million, going once, sixty million, going twice… Sold!"

The auction hammer fell.

My heart sank with it.

A server carried the packaged necklace up to the second-floor box.

I removed my sunglasses, staring intently at the box.

I saw it all too clearly.

Kieran took the box, opened it, and removed the red necklace.

Without even glancing down at the crowd, he turned and gently fastened the necklace around Seraphina's neck.

"This is a get-well gift for you." Though I couldn't hear his voice, I read his lips.

Seraphina shrieked with delight, throwing herself into his arms for a kiss.

I felt as though I was plunging into an ice cellar.

Something inside me shattered completely.

He knew perfectly well it was my mother's heirloom, yet he bought it without hesitation and then hung it like a mere trinket around the neck of the woman who had ruined my life.

I stood up and pulled out my phone, dialing the number I had sworn never to call again.

"Lucian," I said into the receiver, my voice eerily calm.

Lucian's concerned voice came from the other end, "What is it, my little fiancée calling me out of the blue?"

"Come pick me up in a few days. Once I've settled things here, we'll get married," I said, looking at the embracing couple on the second floor, speaking each word with deliberate precision.

After the auction, I found them near the VIP exit.

"Name your price, Kieran," I said, blocking their luxury car. My voice was cool and businesslike. "I want that necklace."

Seraphina, nestled in his arms, flinched. She clutched the large ruby at her throat, as if I might snatch it away.

Kieran frowned. "You don’t have money, Aurora. Your accounts are frozen."

I met his gaze, playing my last card.

"I’ll sign a lifelong contract. I’ll be the Nocturne family’s exclusive perfumer. Just give me back my mother’s necklace."

Within their bloodlines, a lifelong contract was practically servitude. Even with different terms, it was a deeply agonizing commitment. For a noble pureblood, it was a grave insult. But I didn’t care anymore.

Kieran paused, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his eyes.

Then Seraphina tugged his sleeve, her voice soft. "Since the necklace was purchased, it’s now family property. I want to wear it. How about this? Once I’m done with it, I’ll give it back to my sister, alright?"

Kieran glanced at me, a hint of hesitation in his expression, then finally nodded.

But that afternoon, when Seraphina reappeared, the necklace was gone.

I waited a moment, then finally spoke.

"…Where is the necklace?"

Seraphina gasped. "Oh! I was playing with Snowball and let him try it on. I completely forgot to take it off him."

Snowball was the pet cat she kept in the back garden.

As she spoke, she blew a whistle from around her neck.

A pure white cat sprinted over instantly, my mother’s necklace dangling from its fur.

"The red looks so good with his fur, doesn’t it?" Seraphina smiled, lowering her head to stroke the cat’s fur.

My sanity shattered in that instant.

I didn’t think. My body moved faster than my brain, lunging directly at Seraphina.

I didn’t care about the consequences. I just wanted to sever the hand that desecrated my mother’s memory.

But the next second, my dagger never reached her.

A surge of immense shadow power slammed into my chest.

I was flung backward, crashing hard against a pillar in the corner of the garden.

The crack of breaking bones was sharp and sickeningly clear.

"Enough!" Kieran’s furious voice boomed.

He stood before Seraphina, dark mist swirling around him. He looked down at me, sprawled on the ground and coughing blood, his eyes devoid of pity, filled only with disappointment and disgust.

"I gave you a chance, Aurora. But you’ve disappointed me far too much, trying to harm Seraphina twice over a mere trinket."

"That… that was my mother…" I struggled to rise, but the searing pain in my ribs sent me crashing back down.

Kieran turned away coldly, issuing his command to the guards behind him.

"Take her to the ‘Cell of Silence.’ No one is to visit without my express orders."

The Cell of Silence.

It was a place reserved for those who committed the gravest offenses, a hundred times more brutal than any previous confinement.

Two burly bloodline guards roughly hoisted me up.

Seraphina stood by the car, looking down at me, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. She mouthed the words: He’s mine now.

I was dragged into darkness.

This time, there were no doctors. No medicine.

Only specially forged silver chains piercing my collarbones.

Every so often, someone would drive a silver dagger into my palm.

As the burning agony pushed me to the brink of unconsciousness, the lead guard crouched down and patted my face.

"Don’t blame us for being harsh, Miss Aurora," he sneered. "Lord Kieran specifically instructed that you need a proper lesson. Learn what obedience means."

In this torment, time seemed to lose all meaning.

I don't know how long I was there.

The silver chains bit into my flesh, and I suffered from bouts of fever and chills.

Countless times in my dreams, I called out Kieran's name, only to wake to the heavy silence of the dark.

There was no response.

No one came to see me.

Until one day, the guard unlocked my chains.

"You can go. Lord Kieran said if you behave, you can return to the Moon Tower to continue your work."

I was thrown out of the prison gates as if I were discarded refuse.

It was raining heavily.

Injured all over, I stumbled along the muddy road.

A black car stopped in front of me.

The window rolled down, revealing Kieran's handsome but impassive face.

"Get in," he said. "If you kneel and apologize to Seraphina now, I can pretend none of this ever happened."

I looked at him, feeling like I was looking at a stranger.

My spirit had broken, and even hate felt like too much effort.

"No need." I walked around the car and continued forward.

Kieran didn’t follow.

He probably thought I was playing hard to get.

Back at the manor, I went straight to my perfumery lab to pack my things.

"Want to know how he and I met?" Seraphina was leaning against the doorway, unseen by me.

I said flatly, "Not interested. That has nothing to do with me."

But she started talking anyway:

"A hundred years ago, I happened to save Kieran from a demon hunter. Because of that, I only had a few years left to live. Just before I died, Kieran found me. He promised he would repay me with his entire life, that no one would ever separate us."

"But I never expected you to appear before I was fully recovered!"

"Even though Kieran promised me that the only person he truly loves is me, I can tell he cares about you… How could you take Kieran’s love from me!"

She suddenly gave a wicked smile. "So, the assassin… I was the one who hired him."

"It's a shame he didn't succeed in killing you."

I listened to her entire plan, feeling a strange sense of resolution I’d never known before.

"I won’t compete with you for Kieran, don’t worry."

"Of course I know that. What makes you think you're worthy of competing with me?"

"By the way, that day I said I felt insecure, guess what special gift Kieran gave me?"

Seraphina dangled a black USB drive in her hand.

"This is highly amusing," she said with a smile, walking into the room and plugging the drive into my computer. "Kieran personally showed this to me. He said it was so I could understand how you ‘serve’ him."

The screen lit up.

My pupils instantly dilated.

It was a video.

The footage showed the scene of Kieran and me performing the blood contract ritual in the secret room.

It was our most private, most sacred moment.

Not only that, she swiped with two fingers, revealing folder abbreviations.

Every moment I had spent with Kieran for the past five years was meticulously recorded!

My blood ran cold.

"Kieran said that during the assassination attempt back then, your mother's family was implicated. As her daughter, he felt you were deserving of punishment for her involvement."

"He said this was just a way to tame a wild beast," Seraphina whispered into my ear, her voice venomous. "He also said locking you up in the Cell of Silence this time was to keep me happy. He didn’t care if your legs were broken, as long as I was satisfied."

"He never loved you, not from beginning to end."

She kept talking, but her words became a blur.

At this moment, on this cold, rainy night, all the love, all the fantasies, all the grievances from the past five years turned to ashes.

"Is it true?"

I asked softly, my fingers tracing the foolish, love-struck version of myself on the screen.

"Of course. Don't believe me? Go check his study’s secret room. The original recordings are in the safe. The code is my birthday."

I pushed her aside and rushed to Kieran’s study.

Just as she said, the code to the secret room had been changed.

0915.

Without hesitation, I entered Seraphina’s birthday.

Beep.

The door opened.

In the safe, a box of video tapes lay quietly. The label read: Aurora – Taming Record.

"Hahahaha…"

I burst into laughter, tears mixing with the rain and flowing into my mouth, tasting incredibly bitter.

Taming Record.

So in his eyes, I was just a pet used to vent hatred and desire.

I grabbed the lighter from the table.

Beside it was Kieran’s most cherished thermostatic cabinet, used to preserve Seraphina’s blood samples.

And those priceless ancient books, land deeds.

"Kieran, since you like ‘fiery’ lessons…"

I lit the curtains.

Flames quickly licked at the dry books and wooden furniture.

The place was filled with flammable alchemical materials.

Blue flames shot up instantly, devouring everything.