Sebastian Sterling and I had been in love for three years. I really thought we would stay that way forever—until I discovered he was hopelessly entangled with his sister, Isabella Sterling.

The affection that used to cling to my heart vanished without a trace, swallowed by a wave of nausea that just kept rising. No one had ever dared to play me like that, and no one had ever dared to walk away unscathed after fucking me over.

I decided they were going to pay.

Sebastian was the golden boy of our university’s computer science department. During freshman military training, when every other guy had tanned so dark they were practically charcoal, he stood out like he didn’t belong to the same world. Tall and lean, with cool, refined features, and cheeks that had only reddened slightly under the sun—he was dangerously beautiful.

To put it simply, I’m a shallow person. I’ve always liked good-looking people. So the moment I saw Sebastian, the more I looked, the more he fit my taste. When I asked a girl in my class—who’d gone to high school with him—and found out he was still single, I decided to go for it without hesitation.

In truth, chasing Sebastian was easier than I’d imagined. Because just as I fell for him at first sight, Sebastian fell for me at first sight too.

Before long, Sebastian became my boyfriend. We spent three sweet years together, wrapped up in our own little romance.

Then, in our senior year, Sebastian’s younger sister, Isabella, enrolled at the same university.

To celebrate Isabella getting into college, and to let his girlfriend and his sister get to know each other, Sebastian organized a dinner. It was a small gathering—just me, Sebastian, and Isabella.

But I ended up waiting a long time. I sat alone at the table, a feast laid out in front of me. The customers at the surrounding tables came and went, the waiter checked on me three separate times, and only then did I finally see Sebastian walk in with Isabella, both of them arriving fashionably late.

“You’re two hours late.”

I forced down my anger, trying to stay calm, trying to give him a chance to explain. “So don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”

Sebastian finally spoke, his expression apologetic.

“Just now, I accidentally got my clothes dirty, and Isabella—”

Before they came in, I’d already seen all the shopping bags dangling from his hands. So before he could finish his sentence, I let out a cold laugh.

“So you went shopping for two hours and couldn’t be bothered to make a single phone call? You just left me here waiting like an idiot for two hours?”

Before Sebastian could say anything, Isabella, standing behind him, jumped in first.

“It’s not even Sebastian’s fault. Why are you being so mean, you old hag?”

Isabella was small and pretty, almost doll-like, but her words were nothing like her face. If anything, they only made the fire in my chest burn hotter.

“Isabella, apologize. Now.”

Sebastian finally snapped at her, disapproval written all over his face.

“She’s my girlfriend, the person I care about—and she’s your sister-in-law. Apologize to Evelyn.”

“I won’t!”

I watched Isabella’s eyes fill with tears before she stomped her foot and ran out.

“Sebastian, I can’t believe you yelled at me for someone else!”

Sebastian could only look at me helplessly.

“I’ll explain everything to you later.”

Then he turned and went after her, leaving me sitting there alone, watching his back as he chased someone else out of the restaurant.

My chest felt tight, almost suffocating. It was absurd. They were the ones in the wrong. They were the ones who left me sitting there, waiting in that restaurant for two whole hours. So why did they look so justified, so righteous?

Sebastian was my boyfriend. And yet Isabella acted more like his girlfriend than I did, as if she had every right in the world.

But they were brother and sister. Weren’t they?

In my heart, I kept comforting myself: they’re just unusually close as siblings, I shouldn’t be jealous.

But deep down, there was another voice, faint yet persistent, asking:

Are they really brother and sister?

Or rather… are they really blood-related?

Sebastian didn’t come to explain anything that night.

My phone stayed dark the whole evening.

No messages.

No calls.

No explanations.

So I started a cold war with Sebastian.

To be precise, it was a one-sided cold war—only on my end.

I’m not someone without a temper. In fact, my temper is worse than most girls’. It’s just that in front of the people I care about, I seem gentler. I can tolerate my boyfriend’s immaturity for a while, but I need responses and explanations in return.

Sebastian’s behavior landed squarely on one of my biggest triggers. I blocked him—at least for the time being, I didn’t want to see him at all. I needed to calm down.

But the campus isn’t that big, and everyone has their usual classrooms. If you really want to wait for someone, it’s not that hard to find them.

So as soon as my lab class ended and I stepped out of the room, I saw Sebastian leaning against the corridor window.

Outside, the sky was just breaking open after a recent rain. Light was finally tearing free from the heavy clouds and spilling onto Sebastian’s profile. In the shifting line between light and shadow, he looked beautifully worn-out, almost desolate.

Then he turned his head and saw me.

That’s when I realized—there was a strange, almost luminous look in his eyes as he gazed at me.

He looked straight at me and spoke in a low, hoarse, surprisingly gentle voice.

“Evelyn, let’s not break up, okay?”

“Please don’t ignore me anymore, alright?”

He looked so pitiful, like a stray dog that had finally found its owner again—desperate to get close, but terrified of being abandoned once more. He could only metaphorically roll over, show his vulnerable belly, whimpering, wagging his tail and begging for my affection.

My heart went soft in an instant.

How could it not? I really did like Sebastian. I really did see a future with him.

Maybe he sensed me wavering, because he suddenly wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him. He buried his slightly messy head against the side of my neck, his voice rushed and anxious as he tried to explain.

“That night, Isabella got drunk at the bar. I was worried about her, so I wanted to call you and explain, but she accidentally dropped my phone and broke it. I didn’t mean to leave you waiting for me the whole night.”

“Isabella’s just young. She only just found out I have a girlfriend, so she’s not used to it yet. She didn’t do it on purpose. If you really don’t want to see her, I’ll try my best to keep you two from running into each other in the future.”

I sighed without thinking and slipped my arms around him in return.

“Alright, I’ll let it go this time. But don’t hide things from me again. You know I hate being lied to the most.”

I thought I felt Sebastian stiffen for a split second. But the next moment, he was back to normal, as if I’d imagined it.

After that, my dates with Sebastian were still pleasant. He also gave up on the idea of helping me and his little sister, Isabella, get along. He stopped trying to push us together.

But I did notice that every time Sebastian and I finished a date, he would disappear for a whole day afterward.

My roommate thought it was suspicious, wondered if Sebastian had something going on behind my back.

I didn’t think it was strange at all. Couples should have their own privacy, after all. And I trusted Sebastian. I didn’t believe he would ever betray me.

Until Isabella appeared by my side in another way.

That night, after my date with Sebastian, I went back to the dorm and saw my roommate sitting on my bed, looking troubled. She kept glancing at me, opening her mouth as if to speak and then stopping. After a long time, she finally stammered,

“Evelyn, did you… break up with Sebastian?”

I blinked, confused. “No. Why?”

My roommate hesitated for a while, then handed me her phone. A bad feeling rose in my chest.

“Take a look. Is this your Sebastian?”

On the screen was Isabella’s social media feed. Her latest post was a photo—taken not long after I’d just parted ways with him.

In the picture, Sebastian wore a helpless expression, his neck wrapped in Isabella’s arm as she beamed at the camera. Empty glasses and bottles were scattered all around them. I glanced at the comments under the post. Her friends were all congratulating them, saying how perfect they looked together. Even when someone asked, “Who’s that handsome guy?” Isabella had left a single word, flaunting him like a trophy:

“Mine.”

I stared at their perfectly matched faces—the handsome man, the beautiful woman. They looked so good together it made my stomach turn. I suddenly clapped a hand over my mouth as a wave of nausea hit me. My face went cold and bloodless.

I caught my roommate’s worried gaze and forced myself to speak, my voice barely steady. “I’m fine. Really.”

Then I unlocked my own phone and began calling Sebastian over and over, but he didn’t pick up a single time. I called his roommates, but they had no idea where he was. It was as if Sebastian had vanished into thin air, leaving not even a trace.

I finally stopped calling.

Maybe when anger reaches a certain point, a person can’t help but become calm. I sat there and started to think.

How the hell did they end up tangled together?

Weren’t they supposed to be siblings? Or… had Sebastian been lying to me from the very beginning? Were they never brother and sister at all?

I didn’t have Isabella’s contact info, so I borrowed my roommate’s phone and started scrolling through Isabella’s earlier posts.

Perfect. Almost every time after I had a date with Sebastian, Isabella would post a picture of herself getting drunk at a bar with him. The comments were always full of her showing off, bragging about how Sebastian cared more about her than anyone else. As long as she got drunk, he would show up to protect her.

He didn’t give a shit about that “old woman.”

By now, I could skim past all of this without a flicker of expression.

Until I saw a post she’d made right before her college entrance exams.

“I confessed to him. He didn’t reject me outright. He must like me too.”

Attached was a side profile shot of Sebastian. Below that, one comment caught my eye:

“Wow, Isabella, your childhood sweetheart ‘brother’ is really handsome!”

I stared at the picture and the words until I almost laughed out loud in sheer disbelief.

The love that had once wrapped itself around my heart vanished without a trace. In its place surged a sick, churning disgust that rose higher and higher, until I could barely keep myself from throwing up. All the sweet memories I’d cherished turned into something filthy, like stains mocking my stupidity.

No one had ever dared to play me like that. And no one had ever walked away unscathed after doing so.

My long nails dug into my palm until a sharp pain shot up my hand. I looked down at the crescent marks in my skin and thought, almost detachedly:

No one gets to humiliate me like this. They both have to pay for what they’ve done.

Two days ago, after discovering Isabella’s posts, I’d paid a hefty fee to hire a private investigator to dig up everything there was to know about Sebastian.