After being locked away in a mental hospital for three long years, I suddenly received a message from my adoptive brother, saying he was coming to pick me up.

I stared blankly, my pale face dazed.

"Don't do anything disgraceful once you're out. If you cross the line again, don't expect us to treat you so kindly next time."

I nodded quietly and followed him out. I stood at the overgrown gate, weeds brushing against my legs.

From day to night, I waited.

Until a pair of familiar shoes finally appeared before my eyes. I moved my stiff limbs and followed him into the car.

Luther Hawthorne just stared at me, the frail woman in front of him, in silence. His silence felt heavy with thoughts. Just as he opened his mouth and was about to say something, a clear voice shattered the moment.

"Mommy."

The girl's voice was so gentle, yet it struck Luther like thunder.

Bathed in moonlight, Luther saw a little girl standing behind me, staring at him with fear.

He stared at her face. His voice was low and trembling as he said, "That night…"

I stepped in front of her, blocking her from view. "She's not your child."

A sneer twisted across his face as his teeth clenched. "You really can't help yourself, can you? So eager to throw yourself at someone else?"

I let out a bitter laugh, the pain in my chest threatening to choke me. "I was adopted, so there are no blood ties between us. What right do you have to care?"

I threw his words back at him word for word.

Luther scoffed in a sarcastic tone. "I hope you keep your word. I'll provide for you. As long as you behave, I won't abandon you again."

I did not respond. I just listened to the faint breathing of my daughter beside me, her tiny hand wrapped around mine.

Anna suffered from congenital heart disease.

The only reason I came out this time was for one thing. It was to give her my heart, to exchange one life for another.

I did not need his support and I did not need him in my life anymore.

The car was silent the rest of the way.

Soon, we arrived at the Hawthorne Family estate.

Wilma and a few other maids who used to be close to me saw me from a distance and immediately started whispering.

"Oh my God, even after having those inappropriate thoughts about her adoptive brother, she still managed to get out of the mental hospital."

"Looks like she's been properly taught a lesson."

I let out a quiet, bitter laugh.

If it had been before… I would have stormed over to argue, to defend myself.

However, after three years of being broken, humiliated and worn down in that place, what pride did I have left? My only reason for breathing now was to save my daughter.

As we passed the garden, I paused. The sunflowers I once planted with my own hands were gone, replaced by a sea of vibrant red roses.

Feeling my gaze linger, Luther explained, almost reflexively, "Juliette's allergic to sunflowers…"

I said nothing. Just tightened my grip on my daughter's hand and walked inside.

The moment we stepped into the inner hall, I saw red wedding banners posted everywhere.

A charming woman noticed our footsteps approaching, so she turned around in excitement and chimed in, "Luther, look! Should we hang this pretty charm here?"

As soon as she saw me, Jenna Hale, she hurriedly stepped forward and held my hand. "Jenna, you are back!"

I begged Luther so many times to let you come back to witness our happiness. I did not think he would actually pick you up."

"I'll be your sister-in-law from now on."

I calmly tried to pull my hand away, but she clung on unexpectedly tight, causing me to feel a sharp sting. My face must have gone pale.

She noticed and let go in a panic. "Jenna, I'm so sorry. About what happened back then…"

Just those two words' back then' were enough to make Luther's expression darken.

His eyes turned red as he asked coldly, "Jenna, do you have to be so resentful all the time?"

Before he could say another word, I looked at them with an apologetic gaze and offered a gentle smile. "Luther, Juliette, I wish you both a lifetime of happiness."

Luther froze in place.

And I turned around, leaving him nothing but the sight of my back.

Juliette Monroe, his fiancée, turned away from me. "Looks like sending her away back then really worked. She's completely changed."

"Luther, come help me pick the wedding invitations. Tell me which one looks better."

Downstairs, the joy of their wedding preparations pierced straight through me.

I was adopted by the Hawthorne Family from the orphanage, so I grew up with Luther. We were childhood sweethearts and we loved each other.

Until three years ago.

Luther saw with his own eyes when his mother and his uncle were tangled together on the bed. His eyes were red as he questioned her, asking why she would do something like that. How could a woman like her, proud and noble, fall for someone as useless as his uncle?

He begged her like a madman to tell the truth.

However, she never gave him an explanation. All he got was her cold, lifeless body the next day.

Even though his father, Luke, tried to block all the news, word still got out that she had committed incest and taken her own life out of shame by swallowing sleeping pills.

From then on, the word 'incest' or 'forbidden love' became a forbidden topic to Luther.

And from that day, he started to slowly pull away from me.

I could not accept it at the time. The pain and the heartbreak drowned me and I started coming home drunk every single day.

The next morning, I woke up with a splitting headache and saw Luther lying next to me.

The messy bed and the soreness all over my body pointed to what had happened between us.

My face turned pale. I did not even have time to figure things out.

Luther was furious, demanding to know why I did that despite knowing that incest was his taboo, but I still drugged him.

The sun was shining that morning, but I felt like I had been thrown into an icy pit.

I cried, I begged. I told him I had been wronged. But that night, only Luther, his father and I were at home.

Luther stared at me, eyes full of pain and disbelief. "My father hates incest more than anything. How could he do this?"

After that, I was thrown into a mental hospital, cut off from the outside world. And it was there that I gave birth to a daughter with a congenital heart disease.

To stop the world from thinking my daughter was the result of incest, I told everyone she was someone else's child.

I laughed at myself.

All the pain would all be over soon.

I just had to find a good family for her. Once I did, I could give her my heart and finally rest.

Once I did, I could die peacefully.

I pushed open the door to the room that once belonged to me, but it was now Juliette's cloakroom.

I stood there for a moment in silence, then took my daughter's hand and turned to head toward the remote guest room. After settling in, I cleaned up the space and coaxed her to sleep.

That was when my phone rang.

"Jenna, I'm on set. My script ended up with Luther by mistake. Could you bring it to me?"

"Luther and I are waiting for you here."

I pushed open the door to their bedroom and the sight of their stuff together on the bedside table hit me like a slap in the face.

The bitterness rose in my chest as I grabbed the contract and rushed to the set.

Before I even had the chance to walk in, I was surrounded by a crowd of fans at the door.

A sharp, mocking voice cut through the air, "How dare such a shameless bitch like her show up? The Hawthorne Family raised her, yet she still had the nerve to commit incest with her brother."

Suddenly, one of the fans reached out, knocking the contract out of my hand. I bent down in a panic to pick it up.

But before I could, the fan stomped on my hand, crushing it underfoot.

"Look at you. Our Juliette is about to be happy and you're just jealous, coming out to cause trouble for her."

The crowd pushed me, trapping me in their harsh grasp.

I could feel the same suffocating panic I had suffered from in the mental hospital. Surrounded by darkness and voices, I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

The fans around me laughed cruelly, watching as the once proud Jenna was now a broken figure, lying on the ground with tears streaming down my face and my body shaking uncontrollably.

From a distance, Luther watched with a cold expression. I could see the faintest flash of pain in his eyes as he took a step forward.

He pulled me up from the ground and gently brushed the dust off my clothes.

Dazed from the onset of my condition, my mind tricked me into thinking I had gone back to those happy days. My hand trembled as I reached out to touch Luther's face.

However, Luther flinched away, making my weak body stagger from the rejection.

In that brief moment when he instinctively caught me, he seemed startled by how thin I had become. Every bone in my body must have jabbed into him like needles.

But they all said that she ...

Before he could process it, I snapped back to awareness and pushed his hand away without a word.

He handed the contract over to Juliette and turned to leave, but she called after me.

"Jenna, I'm short a stand-in actor. Could you help me out just this once?"

"The character used to be in a mental hospital. Since you've actually been there, it'll be easier for you to act the part."

Those three simple words hit like a whip, tearing my old wound wide open. I stood frozen, pale, my thin frame shaking uncontrollably.

Juliette pressed on, her voice soft and coaxing, "Don't worry. With my connections, even as a stand-in, I'll make sure you're paid like a lead actress."

Money.

I needed a lot of money to cure my daughter's heart disease.

After a long pause, I finally forced the words out with a hoarse voice. "...Okay."

Under the glare of the spotlight, I stood amidst a crowd of actors playing mental patients. They grabbed my hair and slapped me across the face.

"You lazy bitch! Why do we have to work while you get to sit around doing nothing?"

Staring at my face, his sharp nails scraped across my skin, "With a face like yours, no wonder the director can't stop drooling over you."

I shut my eyes in despair. The humiliation and terror I had buried deep clawed their way back into my mind.

The lights shifted and a group of doctors in white coats walked in.

"You're acting up again today. How will you ever learn to behave if you don't suffer a little?"

They took out bottles of pills, seized my face roughly and forced the bitter medicine down my throat. I choked and instinctively tried to spit it out.

However, that only irritated them even further. Their faces were clouded with displeasure.

"Talking back now? I guess you've decided you don't want to get better and leave this place."

They all laughed mockingly as hands reached for me from every direction.

I screamed and whimpered, but after three years of being broken into obedience, I did not dare to resist.

The next second, my whole body froze in horror.

A hot stream trickled down my legs. Under the harsh flash of lights, it was impossible to hide.

"Oh my God… Jenna Hawthorne, who was once so high and mighty, actually…"

The mocking laughter echoed around me.

Surrounded by the crowd, I did not dare lift my eyes to meet anyone's gaze, especially not Luther's, who stood not far away. I shut my eyes in despair.

Three years ago, I was still proud and headstrong, cutting through the elite circles of the business world with sharp precision and unshakable confidence.

But now… I was reduced to a woman suffering from mental illness, humiliated and branded as insane in front of everyone. Shame overwhelmed me as I bit down on my tongue with all my strength and only when the sharp tang of blood filled my mouth did I finally come back to my senses.

I could not die.

If I died… what would happen to Anna?

Then, a man's cold voice cut through the chaos.

"Get out."

A coat was draped over my shoulders. It still held the lingering warmth of the man who had placed it there and it made my frozen body feel just a little less cold.