I smirked. “Shawn, what nonsense are you spouting again?”

“Don’t think this is up for discussion,” he replied coldly, a trace of mocking disdain flashing in his eyes.

“If you insist on performing, you’ll deal with the consequences yourself.”

I stopped in my tracks, locking eyes with him and his icy stare.

“Brother, is your precious little angel so lacking in confidence that after ten years of piano lessons, she’s afraid of competing with me on the same stage? What a pathetic loser.”

…

Just a few days before the anniversary gala, Alec came to find me.

“Sierra, what happened last time was my fault. But you’ve blocked me from contacting you, and you refuse to see me.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Sierra. Do you have a misunderstanding about me, or… have you fallen for someone else?”

As he said those final words, his voice carried a distinct trace of pain.

“But you said it yourself that you’d always love me the most.”

A surge of anger, sharp and burning, shot through my chest.

Once, I had loved him with all my heart for so many years.

He said he didn’t like me doing kissing scenes, so I gave up countless opportunities with some of the best directors in the industry.

He said Linda came from a rough background and was bullied in the orphanage, so I should go easy on her.

And I forgave her again and again for every offense she committed against me.

All I ever wanted was to have my sincerity returned in kind.

And what did I get in return? A decade of slander and hatred from both of them.

At that moment, I couldn’t even be bothered to put on a façade anymore.

Grabbing Alec by the collar, I shoved him hard against the tree behind him.

He gasped in pain, sucking in a sharp breath.

Before he could say a word, I slapped him hard across the face.

I didn’t hold back.

His pale complexion instantly flushed red and swelled where my hand had landed.

Leaning in close, I spoke slowly, each word cutting like a blade.

“You’ve known Linda Lowe for a long time. I already figured that out. You like her, don’t you? So why are you here pretending to be devoted to me?

“You just want to string me along, use me, while playing lapdog to your precious little angel. You’re no better than your mother, that homewrecking whore—absolutely pathetic.”

As the final word left my lips, a storm brewed in his eyes, dark and turbulent.

But he couldn’t say a single word in response.

I scoffed, letting go of his collar, and walked away without looking back.

…

That night, I had a dream.

Unusually, it was about what happened after my death in my previous life.

After I stabbed Linda in the chest with the cake knife, I succumbed to the unbearable pain and died.

However, she was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Outside her hospital room, Alec grabbed Shawn by the collar and demanded, “You said you’d take care of everything! You said you’d protect her—”

Shawn shrugged off his hand and replied coldly, “I’ve already agreed to share her with you. Do you think you, an illegitimate son, could control the Wood family without my help? Don’t push your luck.”

Alec stumbled back a few steps, retorting, “Your help? It was—”

He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, his words hanging in the air.

Shawn let out a cold laugh.

"That’s right. It was my sister who helped you. But she’s dead now. And the person who threw the acid on her? That was someone you personally contacted and arranged. Have you forgotten?"

Alec stood silently in place, motionless.

The red light above the operating room door continued to blink.

Moments later, Linda was wheeled out.

The doctor said, "The patient is still in critical condition..."

Alec’s gaze flickered over her pale, bloodless face, his eyes trembling ever so slightly.

Then, with eerie calmness, he said, "I haven’t forgotten, and I’ve never regretted it."

…

I jolted awake from the nightmare, stumbling into the bathroom.

Clutching the edge of the toilet, I dry-heaved for what felt like an eternity.

When I finally straightened up, I braced myself against the counter and caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror.

My bloodshot eyes burned with hatred.

“You don’t regret it, huh?” I murmured.

“That’s fine. In this life, you’ll regret everything, even being born. Just wait and see.”

…

The day of the school’s anniversary performance finally arrived.

I ran into Linda by the artificial lake on campus.

She was dressed in an understated yet luxurious silver cocktail dress, with an expensive diamond necklace adorning her neck.

I immediately knew it was probably Shawn who bought her the necklace to comfort her.

“Sierra, do you really think being the heiress of the Wood family will protect you forever?” she sneered.

“You’ve been bullying me for so long. Do you really think I won’t fight back? I’ll make you pay for this a thousand times over.

“So what if you know about Alec and me? He loves me. Your brother loves me too. People like you? You’ll never be loved by anyone.”

She rambled on, throwing insult after insult, and I simply smiled before replying, “How did that toilet water taste like?”

Her face twisted in fury, and I walked away without another word.

…

By evening, the fiery sunset stretched across the sky, painting it in vibrant shades of red and gold.

The girls in the dance team and I had changed into our performance costumes, holding up the hems of our skirts as we hurried from the dance studio to the backstage area.

Halfway there, I realized something was missing—my prop for the final bow.

“Did I leave it in the dance studio?”

I thought back carefully and decided to head back to look for it.

Rachel asked, “Want me to come with you?”

“No need. It’s not heavy. I can manage on my own.”

I smiled and added, “You go ahead to the backstage and start getting your makeup done. Then coordinate with the stage manager to finalize the order of our stage setup.”

The large multipurpose building was eerily quiet.

Lifting the hem of my ornate gilded dress, I took long strides up the stairs.

But just as I was about to reach the floor where the dance studio was, I stopped in my tracks.

Someone was standing a few steps ahead on the staircase.

The golden-red light of the sunset streamed in through the windows, casting its glow on half of his face.

The rest remained shrouded in shadow, his eyes dark and unfathomable, like whirlpools in the depths of the ocean.

Alec’s voice was low and heavy with an emotion that felt like a storm on the verge of breaking.

“Sierra, what are you doing?”

“None of your damn business. Get lost.”

I brushed past him, taking a step to move upstairs.

But before I could go further, a powerful force gripped my shoulder.

My mind froze for a second, the shock delaying my reaction.

By the time I realized what was happening, my body had already gone weightless.

I was falling backward.

Behind me lay the long flight of stairs, dozens of steps stretching down.

My back hit the hard surface with a thud, and I tumbled down the staircase, one painful roll after another.

Pain engulfed me, sharp and unrelenting, as I landed beside the iron railing. A faint crack echoed from my ankle, the sound of a bone on the verge of breaking.

Alec descended the stairs slowly, step by deliberate step, until he stood beside me.

He looked down at me with those same calm, sorrowful eyes, but when he spoke, his voice was cold and detached.

“Sierra, don’t blame me. You were born with everything—every advantage, every opportunity. Even if you miss this chance, there will always be another path for you to take.

“But Linda… she’s not like you. She’s already done her best, pushed herself as far as she can.”

With those words, he knelt down and gripped my injured ankle.

Before I could process what was happening, he slammed my leg against the iron railing with brutal force.

The scene from my dream suddenly flashed in my mind.

He stood outside the hospital room, alongside Shawn, his eyes filled with gentle affection as he watched Linda being wheeled out of the emergency room.

When he spoke of me, his voice was completely indifferent, “I’ve never regretted it.”

The best fifteen years of my life.

The most passionate, sincere love.

It was all tied to someone like him.

I suddenly laughed out loud, just as my calf was about to be slammed into the railing by him.

In one swift motion, I jerked away from his grip.

“Worthless.”

The pain from my sprained ankle took my breath away, but I seized the moment before Alec could react.

Grabbing his hair, I slammed his head hard into the railing.

“Scum. You want to hurt me again? Dream on!”

His head crashed against the iron bars with a resounding thud.

His forehead hit a sharp corner, and blood immediately started pouring out.

It trickled down his cheek, dripping onto his clothes.

“Sierra…”

I took a couple of deep breaths, released his hair, and stood up.

The pain in my injured ankle shot through me relentlessly.

But it didn’t matter.

I looked down at his pain-dazed eyes, and slowly, I smiled.

“Oh my, you’re so devoted. Willing to sacrifice yourself just to see me ruined here, all to secure a future for your precious little angel?

“This is the warning Shawn gave me, isn’t it? You two had already planned to share her at this point, right? How revolting.”

I lifted my skirt, wiping the blood from his face, dragging it across until the pale fabric was stained with blotches of red.

Then I left him there, running toward the darkening sky and into the grand auditorium.

From a distance, the sound of a soft piano drifted out of the auditorium.

It was the same piece Linda had played in my previous life.

Debussy's Clair de Lune.

She sat at the pure white piano on stage, wearing a silver cocktail dress.

The stage was shrouded in darkness, except for a single spotlight that illuminated her, like the only flicker of light in a pitch-black night.

Just like in my previous life, when she stepped on my blood at my engagement party to climb higher, her beauty was blinding.

I ran down the narrow aisle between the two rows of seats.

I pushed past the security guards and event hosts trying to stop me.

I vaulted onto the stage.

Standing in the spotlight, I kicked Linda to the ground and slammed my fist onto the piano.

In her stunned, disbelieving gaze, I began to lose control.

"Play, play, play! Go ahead, play as much as you want!

"You sent your little lapdog to ruin me, and you’re still up here playing like nothing’s wrong?"

…

Of course, I knew.

The talent scout invited by Shawn was sitting in the audience right now.

In my previous life, after hearing Linda play “Clair de Lune,” he contacted her at the end of the performance, offering her the one and only special admission spot.

She accepted it.

This was just the first step toward her bright future.

Later, thanks to Shawn’s meticulous planning, Linda was taken under the wing of a legendary figure in the music world, becoming his private disciple.

Because of my role in a film, where I was to play a genius piano prodigy with autism, my agent arranged for me to study under the same mentor.

But in the brief moment I crossed paths with Linda, I was stopped at the door when I returned home that night.

Shawn stood there, looking at me with disdain.

"Sierra, how much longer are you going to keep this up? Just because you’re nothing like Linda, you hate her so much that you’d tear up the sheet music she copied for the mentor?"