Everything clicked into place.

‘Felicia, I told you. As long as I'm in the picture, you can't win.’

Maxwell lit a cigarette and leaned against the car door, one brow arched as he looked at me.

My fingernails dug deep into my palms.

I stared at him, shaking from head to toe, my voice cracking when I finally spoke.

‘Why?! Maxwell?! How could you?!’

‘You know how long I worked for that award!’

Faced with my fury,

Maxwell blew a slow smoke ring, the corner of his mouth curling upward.

‘There's really no need for all this, Felicia.’

He stepped forward and seized my hand.

‘Compared to being Mrs. Delgado, that worthless little prize means nothing.’

‘I love you, Felicia. I don't want you throwing away my love and patience over something this trivial. Come home with me……’

‘Get off me!’

I ripped my hand free from Maxwell's grip,

swung my arm up, and slapped him square across the face.

‘Maxwell, I already told you. I will never be the wife of the man who killed my mother!’

‘I won't let you get away with this!’

Maxwell clutched his reddening cheek, slammed the car door shut,

and right there in front of the committee building, he laid on the horn at me,

his voice dripping with that same contempt again.

‘Mrs. Delgado, I'm happy to play this game with you. We'll play until you've had your fill. Until you learn to back down and admit you've lost!’

I watched his car tear away in a cloud of dust.

I clenched my fist and drove it into the rough stone wall behind me.

Gravel bit into torn flesh.

Blood mixed with grit seeped through the gaps between my fingers and pooled in my palm,

staining the business card I'd been clutching.

I slowly uncurled my ruined hand and dialed the number on the card.

Maxwell, the one who loses in the end won't be me.

‘Felicia, are you sure about this? If it really goes that far, you and Maxwell will truly be……’

‘I'm sure.’

Cindy Donaldson went silent on the other end for two seconds, then her voice came back low and steady.

‘Alright. As long as you're certain, I'm with you to the end.’

Tears had been swimming in my eyes for a long time.

After those words from Cindy, I couldn't hold them back anymore and let them fall.

It was the first time I'd cried since my mother died.

Cindy must have sensed it through the phone,

because her voice softened.

‘Felicia, you know better than I do what Maxwell is capable of. Brace yourself.’

I looked back at the committee building and managed a bitter smile.

‘I know. I'm ready.’

‘Cindy, let's begin.’

‘Done.’

After I hung up, I watched the trees flicker past the car window, and a cold laugh rose from somewhere deep inside me.

Eight years. I'd been by his side through everything, from green and naive to polished and powerful.

I came from a business family. I understood the dirty tricks of the trade better than Maxwell ever had.

In the beginning, I was the one who taught him, piece by piece.

He learned. He got good at it. He mastered the chessboard.

And now every last bit of it was being used against me.

But it didn't matter. Cindy alone was worth every legal team in Capital City combined.

A shrill ringtone cut through my thoughts.

I hit the answer button.

Maxwell's voice exploded from the other end.

‘Felicia, are you serious?!’

When I didn't respond, his tone eased just a fraction.

‘Felicia, there's really no need for this. You know my company's been dealing with some issues lately.’

‘You're having Cindy sue me now? My entire legal department will have to drop everything for this. You're going to hurt the family business doing this.’

‘That's not my home, Maxwell.’

I cut him off, my voice cold.

Maxwell paused, as if he'd decided arguing with me was pointless.

‘Fine. Tell me what it'll take for you to drop this.’

I let out a hollow laugh.

‘Make Peggy publicly admit she plagiarized my work.’

‘In your dreams!’

His voice shot up instantly.

‘Felicia, I don't understand you. What's worth fighting over about some stupid award? Peggy doesn't have much time left. Can't you just……’

I hung up before he could finish.

I pulled over to the side of the road.

Tears had already soaked my face.

He helped her plagiarize. He schemed and maneuvered to make sure Peggy's name ended up on that award. And now he had the nerve to ask me why I was fighting over some stupid prize.

Eight years. Eight years completely wasted on him.

My phone rang, dragging me back.

Maxwell.

【Felicia, if you're going to be this heartless, don't blame me for what comes next.】

I glanced at the message and blocked his number.

But a quiet dread was already settling in.

I was just about to call Cindy to warn her when

her call came through first.

The second I picked up, all I heard was chaos on the other end.

‘Hurry, she's crashing! Get her to the ICU!’

‘Cindy!’

I was screaming her name.

‘Cindy, what happened? Talk to me!’

A long silence. Then Cindy's voice broke through, raw and choked.

‘Felicia, my mom got hit. A dump truck ran a red light and just……’

I couldn't make out anything after that.

The phone slipped from my hand and struck the top of my foot.

A piercing ringing filled my ears……

Another message from Maxwell.

【Felicia, as long as I'm around, you'll never win.】

I picked the phone up with trembling hands,

tried to call Maxwell, but my finger slipped and opened Peggy's social media page instead.

One minute ago. A fresh post.

The cemetery on the north side of town. My mother's gravestone, covered top to bottom in award certificates bearing Peggy's name.

Peggy stood in front of it, flashing a victory sign.

The caption:

【Burn as many as you want. The people who love me will always give me more.】

I clenched my fist and slammed it into the steering wheel.

The horn shrieked, shrill enough to rip through me.

But it brought me back.

I floored the gas and drove straight to the hospital.

I ran the whole way in. The moment I stepped into the lobby, every single pair of eyes seemed to turn on me, whispering, pointing.

I didn't care.

I tore through the corridors searching for Cindy like a woman possessed,

and in the chaos ran straight into her arms.

Before I could say a word, Cindy grabbed my wrist and shoved me back toward the exit.

Cindy, who never lost her composure, had pure panic in her eyes.

‘Why did you come to the hospital?! I called and texted you the whole way here, why didn't you answer?!’

‘You need to leave. Go home. Now!’

I stared at her, lost.

I was about to ask what was going on

when a crowd closed in around us.

A man in the group pointed at me, a lewd grin spreading across his face.

‘Hey, you're the slut who slept with the judges to win that award, right?! How do you even show your face in public?!’

I whipped around to face him.

He hadn't been at the awards gala.

Maxwell had already told every media outlet that the photo was fake, that it would never be released.

The man seemed to read my mind.

He pointed at the giant screen behind me, his laugh equal parts disgusting and brazen.

‘What's wrong? Thought you could do your dirty little deeds and nobody'd ever find out?! Well, now the whole world knows!’

I turned to look where he was pointing.

On the LED screen, three stories tall, my ‘intimate photos’ with the judge were scrolling in a loop.

Compared to the ones shown at the awards gala,

these were far more explicit.

The tattoo on my lower back. My flushed face.

These weren't doctored. These were real photos from my private moments with Maxwell……

It hit me like a bolt of lightning straight through my skull.

Before I could even process it, hundreds of reporters flooded into the hospital.

They propped up their cameras and started filming the screen behind me in a frenzy.

‘No! Get away!’

Cindy was like a woman possessed, darting between the reporters to shove them back and then throwing herself in front of the screen to block it.

Her mother's blood was still smeared across her clothes. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was screaming at them like a wild animal.

In the shoving, I fell into the crowd.

A man lunged from behind me and ripped my shirt apart with one violent tug.

He pointed at the tattoo on my lower back, turning to the crowd with a leering shout.

‘Look! This slut really does have a tattoo on her lower back! Those photos are real! She's nothing but a shameless whore!’

A pair of thick hands clamped around my waist.

Then the kicks and punches came, too many to count.

Through the chaos, a nurse burst out of the ward.

She stared at the crowd and screamed at the top of her lungs.

‘Is Cindy Donaldson here?!’

‘Your mother's crashing!’

The voice that had been screaming to protect me went silent.

Surrounded by curses and spit, Cindy, who was harder than iron, crumpled to the ground.

Beyond the crowd, Maxwell strolled toward us with Peggy on his arm and victory written all over his face.

In that single instant, every image collided at once: my mother dying in agony, Cindy's mother thrown by the dump truck, Cindy collapsing.

They stacked on top of each other, flashing behind my eyes like a strobe.

Hatred erupted from somewhere so deep it felt volcanic.

I forced every ounce of strength into my legs and stood. My bloodshot gaze swept over the two of them, smug and untouchable.

Then my eyes landed on the hundreds of cameras. I clenched my teeth and spoke.

‘You've all been investigating the Grandview Terrace construction disaster ten years ago, haven't you?! The one that killed and injured nearly a hundred people?!’

The words landed, and the color drained from Maxwell's face.

His pupils shrank to pinpoints. He lunged toward me like a man unhinged.

The reporters blocked him instantly. Every lens swung to me.

‘You know the truth?!’

‘Of course I do!’

I screamed it, every word hurled straight into the cameras.

‘Maxwell's father killed those people! And the surveillance footage from that day is in my hands!’