I knelt on the ground, sweeping my hands across the floor, groping blindly.

Within minutes, all ten fingers were riddled with puncture wounds—skin shredded, blood streaming down my wrists. Not an inch of flesh left intact.

But Nora's cries were growing weaker.

I had no choice. I stuck out my tongue and began to lick the floor, searching for needles by taste.

Half an hour later, I cupped a handful of bloodied needles and looked up at the doctor. When I spoke, blood kept welling from my mouth, spilling down my chin.

"They're all here. Please... save my daughter..."

The words left me, and so did consciousness. I collapsed.

When I woke, the sharp tang of disinfectant filled my nose.

Instinctively, I reached out—but my arms found only empty sheets. No warm little body. No soft breath against my skin.

"Nora..."

I staggered out of bed and lurched toward the Doctor's Office, bare feet slapping against cold linoleum. Through the window, I spotted her—my daughter, cradled in the arms of the female doctor who had treated her last night.

Dr. Hazel Grant rocked Nora gently, feeding her from a bottle. Her eyes were soft with pity.

"What a sin," she murmured. "Born a legitimate heiress, and yet because of that sister's jealousy, she can't even have her own mother's milk. The poor little thing."

Her colleague leaned in, voice dropping low.

"You're telling me. And get this—the paternity test? Mr. Sanchez personally supervised the forgery. The plan is to pin it on the hospital in a year, claim we made the mistake, and use that to coax the mother and daughter back. He threw millions at us to play along with this charade. Rich people and their games, honestly."

"Oh, that's nothing." Dr. Grant's voice turned conspiratorial. "I heard the sister is only adopted. Anyone with eyes can see she's got her sights set on her own brother. Last night during my rounds, I saw her—watched her kiss Mr. Sanchez right on the mouth while he was asleep. Five minutes later, he woke up." She paused meaningfully. "Didn't say a single word."

The two women exchanged knowing looks, lips curling with unspoken judgment.

I sagged against the wall, eyes burning until they ached.

Ruth Sanchez was the Sanchez family's adopted daughter. Because they were siblings in name, every time I showed even a flicker of jealousy, I became the unreasonable one—the woman trying to tear apart a brother and sister's innocent bond.

All Cyril had to do was raise an eyebrow and say, "If it were really as sordid as you imagine, I'd have married her already. You think you'd have had a chance?"

And I would fall silent. Every time.

He was right, wasn't he?

He was the heir to the richest family in the city—untouchable, godlike. And I was just a nine-to-five nobody, punching a clock and scraping by.

So why had he sent me tens of thousands of roses?

Why had he held my hand through the darkest nights after I lost my family, patient and steady when I couldn't stop crying?

Why had he personally dealt with the supervisor who made lewd comments about me at work?

And when that car came barreling toward us—why had he wrapped his body around mine, shielding me so completely that he was the one who ended up in the ICU?

I still remembered our wedding day. The way he'd raised his hand to the heavens and sworn:

"Samantha, I will love you and cherish you for the rest of my life. I will never betray you."

But hearts change in a heartbeat. And "forever" was just something people said to make the moment feel real.

When I looked up again, Cyril was standing in front of me.

I didn't know how long he'd been there.

His eyes met mine—bloodshot, hollow, bruised with exhaustion—and for once, something like concern flickered across his face.

"You just gave birth. Why aren't you resting in bed?"

The scent of Ruth's perfume clung to him, thick and cloying.

It hit my stomach like a fist. I nearly retched.

I stepped back, avoiding his reaching hand.

"You wanted a divorce, didn't you?" My voice came out flat. Dead. "Let's sign it. Now."

Cyril went still.

For a few seconds, he just stared at me. Then his expression hardened, and a cold, mocking smile twisted his lips.

"Samantha, don't be stupid. You don't have a cent to your name. Leave me, and you'll be sleeping on the street tonight—you and that baby both."

I lifted my gaze to meet his. Held it.

"The baby isn't yours anyway," I said, ice in every syllable. "Why do you care?"

The mockery hit its mark.

Cyril's face contorted—Loss control, reached for the fury beneath it. He snatched the divorce papers from his assistant's hands and signed with such force the pen nearly tore through the page.

I reached for the document to add my own signature, but before the ink could dry—

He ripped it from my grasp.

"Ungrateful bitch."

He jabbed a finger toward the hospital entrance, veins bulging at his temple.

"Get out. Get out of my hospital. Now."

I held my daughter close and headed for the exit.

Beep beep—

A sleek black car idled across the street. I quickened my pace toward it.

But before I could take more than a few steps, two bodyguards materialized out of nowhere and dragged me back inside.

"Did you see the trending topics? Mrs. Sanchez was forced into a divorce—all because of that adopted sister."

"What a vile sister-in-law. Accusing her own brother's wife of cheating? I'd expose her online too."

The hospital buzzed with the same conversation at every turn.

This had Ruth's fingerprints all over it.

What I couldn't figure out was why she'd deliberately thrown herself into the eye of the storm.

Then Cyril's palm cracked across my face—no questions asked, no explanation sought.

"Samantha, I never knew you could be this vicious." His voice was ice and venom. "No wonder you were so eager to sign those divorce papers. You'd planned to destroy Ruth all along, hadn't you? Playing the sympathy card with your postpartum divorce story, dragging me into your scheme—you're despicable."

"The press will be here any minute. You will apologize to Ruth publicly. Do you have any idea how brutal the comments are? She's still so young—if I hadn't gotten here in time, your little stunt would've pushed her to slit her wrists!"

On the hospital bed, Ruth sat perfectly upright.

Whole. Unharmed. Not so much as a pink mark on her wrists.

A person pretending to sleep will never wake, no matter how loud you call.

Besides—someone was waiting for me.

"No need to make this complicated."

I handed my daughter to the nurse who'd followed us in, then pulled out my phone and opened a livestream.

I turned toward Ruth and bowed deeply from the waist.

"Miss Sanchez, I'm sorry. For all the false accusations circulating online, I offer my sincerest apology. You're not a scheming little sister who drove a wedge between husband and wife. I'm the vicious one—absurdly jealous of a normal sibling relationship, deliberately divorcing your brother, posting sob stories online for sympathy, even paying trolls to attack you."

I bowed again.

"Miss Sanchez, you and Mr. Sanchez have always been completely innocent. Just an ordinary brother and sister. I was the one eaten alive by jealousy, using underhanded tactics to frame you. Please forgive me."

Every word rang out, crisp and unmistakable.

With each sentence, the color drained further from both their faces.

Ruth—because I had just nailed them permanently to the cross of sibling relations for all the world to see.

Cyril's expression was harder to read. Something flickered in his eyes—a flash of unease he couldn't quite suppress.

Ruth shot me a look of pure hatred.

Then, suddenly, she clutched at her hair, her voice trembling like a leaf in a gale.

"I'm not a bad woman—I'm not! It was her who cheated! She's the one who made a cuckold of my brother! She didn't cherish him, so I will! If loving him makes me shameless and disgusting, then just let me die—"

Her sudden breakdown shattered whatever composure Cyril had barely managed to regain.

He pulled her into his arms. "Ruth, we're not blood siblings. We were actually engaged as children—a promise between our families. Even if you do have feelings for me... you've done nothing wrong."

The moment those words left his mouth, the livestream chat exploded with roses.

Rows upon rows of "99" flooded the screen.

The glare of it seared my eyes.

A swarm of reporters burst through the door, cameras thrust in my face, shutters clicking in a deafening frenzy.

"Mrs. Sanchez! So you're the homewrecker in this story?"

"Mrs. Sanchez! You were a nobody before this marriage. Care to share what tactics you used to claw your way into the Sanchez family?"

"Breaking up a golden couple just to marry rich—don't you feel any guilt?"

Camera flashes strobed across my face like an assault.

They were practically branding me—homewrecker, slut, gold-digger—searing every slur into my skin with their accusations.

Through the jostling crowd, I caught a glimpse of Ruth's face.

She was smiling.

A smile of pure, triumphant malice.

I lifted my head slightly, and a reporter—catching some unspoken signal—swung his camera toward the nurse's arms, firing off shot after shot of my daughter.

"Holy shit, this is the bastard kid? Ugly little thing. Mrs. Sanchez really isn't picky about whose bed she crawls into."

"Like mother, like daughter—you can see the moral rot from a mile away. Get more shots. We'll use them for cutaways later. Title it 'The Mistress's Spawn.' Guaranteed headline."

Rage detonated in my chest.

My palm connected with his face before I could think.

I hadn't even hit him hard—but he crumpled to the floor and went still.

"Oh God—Giles Chavez has a heart condition! You can't touch him!"

"He's not breathing! Murderer!"

A reporter jabbed a finger at me, eyes blazing with a hatred that could have drawn blood.

"Don't touch her." Cyril's voice cut through the chaos, cold and final. "Any issues go through my lawyers."

The words had barely left his mouth when Ruth clutched her abdomen again, her face twisting in pain.

"Cyril... I got too worked up. I think my stitches tore..."

I stood frozen, my daughter pressed to my chest, and looked at him.

Helpless. Desperate.

His gaze lingered on us for one long, unreadable moment.

Then he bent down, scooped Ruth into his arms, and said to me:

"Wait for me."

His back disappeared down the corridor.

And I was left behind—surrounded by a mob of furious reporters—as cold steel handcuffs clicked around my wrists.

Three months later. The Criminal Court.

"This court finds the defendant, Ms. Samantha Pruitt, guilty of involuntary manslaughter. She is hereby sentenced to five years' imprisonment and ordered to pay three million dollars in compensation."