I dropped my eyes, ignoring the rotting wooden plaque and bowed deeply.

“Sir James, Miss Julia, I’m sorry.”

“It was my fault for not knowing the rules, but please, Sir, don’t destroy my flowers. I’ll clean everything up.”

James Burn seemed a bit taken aback by my bow. Suddenly, Julia began trembling.

“James, I feel dizzy...”

Her delicate, soft voice snapped James back to attention. With a wave of his hand, he barked, “What are you waiting for? Do it!”

The lush lavender was fed into the grass crusher, turning into purple juice.

“No!” I screamed, desperately lunging forward and clutching whatever I could.

James Burn, startled, let go of Julia Watson, who stumbled back and hit a tree trunk.

“Are you crazy?!”

His eyes were red with fury as he pulled me away until he noticed what I held in my palm: a crushed flower and a broken, rotting wooden plaque.

“You...” he started.

Tears burst from my eyes “you said you couldn’t sleep well... That’s why I planted the lavender. My dad gave it to me to help you sleep.”

The wooden plaque crumbled in my hand as I held it out to him.

“James, I don’t have a home anymore.”

He froze, reaching out as if to embrace me.

But then a scream pierced the air, it was Julia. A cluster of caterpillars had fallen from the birdhouse I’d made, right onto her.

James flinched and rushed forward, pulling Julia away. The caterpillars carried mild toxins, but James Burn used his bare hands to pick them out of her hair.

When he turned back to me, his eyes were full of disgust.

“Almost fooled me with your act.”

“Like throwing bugs, huh? Fine, all of you, stuff the bugs on the ground into her clothes!”

Several maids hurried to obey, scooping up the caterpillars. The gardener grabbed me, holding me tightly.

“I didn’t do it! How could it be me?!”

James snorted, saying nothing. Of course, he hadn’t believed me in a long time. Otherwise, in our past lives, he wouldn’t have accused me of rigging the lottery without even asking.

At first, I still clung to the memory of the Grey Family’s kindness and wanted to warn him that Julia was hiding a secret. But now, I regretted it. I wanted to see him lose it when the truth came out.

So, I stopped struggling and let the caterpillars crawl all over me. The spots they touched reddened, swelled and itched unbearably.

Julia finally calmed down and gently tugged on James’s sleeve.

“Will this be bad? I’m fine now...”

“Julia, you’re just too kind. That’s why people take advantage of you,” he said. “Come on, I’ll take you to the doctor.”

He carried Julia and walked away, leaving me behind.

My body gave out and I collapsed onto the ground. My fingers had dug deep into the soil from trying to endure the pain, mud and blood coating my skin.

Because of James Burn, no one came to help me. I endured the nausea and pain, finally throwing off the caterpillars and staggering to the family doctor.

Inside, I saw James behind a curtain, applying medicine to Julia. Though it was just a simple treatment, Julia gasped dramatically.

By the time he pulled the curtain back, Julia was limp in his arms and his fingers were still wet with medicine.

James glanced at my red, swollen, festering neck and tossed a bottle of potion at me. I was a second too slow, the glass shattered on the floor, spilling the liquid everywhere.

“No need to see a doctor. You’re only good for filth.”

In the Burn Family and in the whole capital, James was like the sky itself. If he said I couldn’t see the doctor, no doctor would even look at me.

I knelt on the floor, half-covered in dirt, applying the potion with my mud-stained hands. When I finally looked up, I saw James tenderly disinfecting Julia’s fingers as if she were made of porcelain.

“James, I’m leaving the Grey Family.” Nine-year-old James once promised to give me a home.

But now that home was gone and it was time for me to say goodbye.

James Burn wiped Julia Watson’s hand clean and kissed her fingertips lightly. His expression barely changed.

“Say that again,” he said flatly.

I took a deep breath. “I said, you and Miss Julia are getting married and I’m nothing but an outsider. Just like the other ninety-eight candidates. I should leave.”

“James, this isn’t a request. It’s a notice.”

“Notice?!” His tone shifted without him even realizing it. “Jacqueline Smith,” he sneered, “that vegetable father of yours, is he giving up treatment?”

His voice had a threatening edge that made me freeze. Memories from my past life made me tremble. He had once embraced me, only to push me into a coffin with those same cold hands.

It was a pity. No matter how possessive James Burn once was, he never imagined I’d soon marry someone else.

Before, when I wanted him to soften, I threatened to leave the Grey Family. But now, I didn’t need his softness anymore. I really needed to go.

After a long silence, James snorted.

“If you’re so scared, then stay put. Julia needs a personal maid, especially on our wedding night. You can warm the bed for us.”

Julia blushed, lightly tapping his chest with her small pink fist.

“James, shame on you.”

James caught her delicate white hand, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into a hug.

“What are you shy about? Come, I’ll take you out to play.”

She kicked me with her small high heel as she walked past, sending me crashing into shards of glass.

I picked up the medical tweezers and calmly removed the broken pieces from my leg. Then I applied antiseptic as if it were nothing.

I returned to the room I’d lived in for twenty years. I tried to pack like some fictional heroine from a novel I’d once read. But quickly realized, none of it belonged to me.

James used to take pictures with me. But at some point, the person in the photos was always a ten-year-old girl. Julia had been abroad for ten years and he had spent those years longing for her.

The dark wedding chamber was plastered wall-to-wall with photos of Julia, secretly taken by a private investigator. All obsessively.

I stuffed my documents into my pocket and sat dazed at the edge of the bed.

My phone vibrated, a message from the hospital caretaker.

“Miss Audrey, your father just regained some consciousness. He’s calling your name!”

I limped to the hospital. There, I heard my father weakly call my name in a barely audible whisper.

That hadn’t happened in my previous life.

Back then, the power went out and the ventilator shut off. He died within a minute.

But now, he spoke my name. For someone in a vegetative state, this was a miracle. Maybe, just maybe, I would live to see him open his eyes.

The caretaker left us alone, giving me a warm smile on her way out. I sat beside the bed, holding his hand tightly.

“I’m leaving the Grey Family. Those people… they’ll have nothing to do with me anymore.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep the lavender you gave me.”

“Dad, can you get up and tell me… where did you find those seeds?”

I bowed my head and let the tears fall freely.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… I’ve been looking everywhere for you. And here you are, crying over a dying man.”

Julia stood at the doorway, arms crossed, swaying her hips with a smirk. Her eyes narrowed as she sauntered in.

I wiped away my tears. “What are you doing here?”

Julia lifted her foot and kicked the hospital bed. The monitors beeped in protest as the connected machines jolted.

She tilted her chin arrogantly. “I heard Mommy say you’re planning to marry that pervert?”

I didn’t respond. I just stared at her, wary.

“It shouldn’t be my business if you want to marry a beggar,” she sneered. “But I heard you know my secret?”

“I won’t tell.”

Julia Watson looked at me as if I’d just told the funniest joke she’d ever heard.

“How can I be sure you won’t say anything? If you do, James will leave me!” Her eyes turned red as she spoke.

“Only if you’re dead can I finally feel at ease!”

With that, a blade slipped from her sleeve and flashed toward me. I instinctively leaned back, falling straight onto my dad’s unmoving body. Julia didn’t look soft at all. With the blade clenched between her fingers, she aimed directly for my throat.

But suddenly, a dry, pale hand caught her wrist. The monitors around us beeped erratically.

The doctor had said that a patient might wake up if the machines made a sound like that.

I whipped around in shock, “Dad?”

He didn’t open his eyes, but his hand firmly stopped Julia from hurting me. “No… you… touch… my… daughter,” came his hoarse, broken whisper.

I couldn’t believe it, his hand still held firm.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway fast, heavy and familiar. In a flash, Julia cut her fingertip with the blade and slipped it into my father’s hand. Tears streamed down her face.

“Don’t kill me!”

The next second, James burst into the room. She flew into his arms like she’d found a life raft.

“James! My sister’s father tried to kill me… I just heard he was waking up and wanted to see him… Did Julia do something wrong?” Blood dripped from her fingertip, catching James Burn’s eye. His face darkened instantly.

Without a word, he seized my wrist with an iron grip, nearly crushing it.

“You were going to get Julia killed again, weren’t you?!”

“I helped pay for your father’s treatment all these years and this is how you repay me?!”

I shook my head, panicked. “I didn’t! It wasn’t me…!”

James’ smile twisted cold and cruel, like a demon from the underworld. “Yeah, not you this time. It was your father.”

I felt my stomach sink. I dropped to my knees and bowed, forehead slamming against the floor.

“It wasn’t my dad! He’s just a vegetable, he doesn’t even know anything!”

“It was Julia! She tried to kill me! She—” But Julia interrupted with a sob. “I didn’t! You know about my blood condition, James, you’ve always known…”

Then she clutched her forehead and staggered back, her performance flawless. James glanced at her, his expression hardening. He looked at the blade in my father’s limp hand and his jaw clenched.

“Good. Very good…”

Without another word, he walked over and unplugged my dad’s respirator. The monitor screamed, a piercing beep ringing in my ears like a curse.

I lunged forward and tried to plug it back in, but he shoved me away.

“Stop, James, please, I’m begging you! My dad will die without the ventilator!”

“Hit me, kill me, do anything to me, but please don’t do this to him!”

James stared down at me like I was dirt beneath his shoes.

“Dying is the easiest thing in the world.”

“Don’t think I don’t know that a vegetable won’t die just because the ventilator is off for ten minutes. I’m just punishing you.”

He pulled out his phone and called the hospital staff to cut power to the ward, specifically just this room for ten minutes. Then he picked up Julia Watson like she weighed nothing and turned back one last time.

“Tomorrow night, on my wedding night, you come back to warm the bed.”

“If you don’t, just wait and see what happens!”

He walked out. I crawled over to my father, crying, forcing air into his mouth. But it was useless.

Ten minutes later, the power returned. I immediately reconnected the ventilator. The screen flickered, then steadied…Into a flat line.

He was gone. My dad, who had been left like a dog in that bed for years, was dead. I sat on the cold hospital floor, arms wrapped around my knees, eyes swollen and burning from crying.

And then, I heard footsteps again. I looked up, my vision blurred.

“Do me a favor?” I whispered.

I didn’t know what I was trying to prove anymore. But James Burn organized a wedding more lavish than I’d ever dared to dream.

Jacqueline’s wedding dress shimmered, thousands of sparkling gems stitched into the fabric, dazzling under the lights.

When James entered the grand hall, his gaze instinctively swept the crowd. But he didn’t see me in the seat reserved for me.

The ceremony proceeded. Vows were exchanged. Applause filled the air. Then came the toast ninety-eight women he had once collected like trinkets in blind boxes raised their glasses together.

He rarely asked questions. But this time, he did.

“Where is Julia?”

Number 25 paused, thinking.

“You mean Sister Number One? I didn’t see her.”

James frowned.

“She has a name. She’s not just Number One.”

Number 25 nodded, confused and watched James’s leave.

It suddenly struck him, Mrs. Lane was also Jacqueline’s mother. So, he made his way across the venue to find her.

Mrs. Lane stood smiling, chatting lightly on the phone with Mr. Morgan.

“Aunt Jessy,” Number 25 said politely, “why isn’t Julia here today?”

At his words, Mrs. Lane and Mr. Morgan exchanged a strange, meaningful glance.

And just like that, James felt a jolt in his chest. An inexplicable pain.

The next second, Mrs. Lane raised her phone. The dim screen lit up and what James’s saw burned into his mind forever.