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?"