"Sure."

After work, I was on my way to the bridal salon.

The phone rang. Same number again, the one belonging to the "me" from five years ahead.

The second the call connected, the roar on the other end nearly split my eardrum.

"Odette Simmons! Are you deaf? I told you not to go try on that gown. Can you not understand plain words, or are you just so worthless you have to throw yourself into the fire?"

Then, all at once, the voice broke into a shrill, sobbing wail.

"Even knowing the future is a nightmare, you're still going to marry Clay Gilbert, aren't you?"

"So the me from five years ago loved him that much."

I looked at the endless line of stalled traffic ahead, my voice terrifyingly calm.

"Done? Don't call again. You're getting on my nerves."

Half an hour later, the bridal salon.

Clay's car was parked out front, but he wasn't in the main hall.

I found him at the far end of the fitting-room corridor.

I didn't push the door. I only stood at that narrow crack and watched, cold-eyed.

Maud Henson was wearing the custom gown that should have been mine, and the shape it drew on her really was lovely.

Clay's brows were drawn tight, his voice low but edged with anger.

"Who told you to put this one on? Take it off, don't let Odette see. Pick anything else you want, but not hers, never hers."

"Then what am I to you?"

Maud wouldn't be refused. She snapped up onto her toes and kissed him full on the mouth.

Clay clearly panicked for an instant.

"We can't. If Odette sees us here, I can't even imagine the fallout."

His mouth said no, but his hands clamped hard around Maud's waist.

The two of them slid out of control inside that kiss, breathing rough, drinking in this stolen moment of tenderness.

Only when Maud went soft against him and reached up to straighten his rumpled clothes did she say, all wounded and pouting,

"Clay, I want to marry you out in the open too."

Clay's face went cold in a heartbeat, and he pushed her back to arm's length.

"Not a chance!"

"We agreed. You can only be my secret lover, out of sight. If you can't keep your place, then we end here."

"The only woman I'll ever marry is Odette Simmons."

Maud's tears fell one fat drop after another, yet she instantly put on a meek, ingratiating smile.

"I understand. Take me to a hotel tonight, all right? Even as your nameless lover, I'm willing."

Watching them, my heart skipped one hard beat.

No more, no less. Exactly enough to cancel out that one messy skip from the first time Clay ever made my heart move.

I raised my hand and knocked on the fitting-room door, not soft, not hard.

"Clay, are you in there?"

A scramble of frantic noises came from inside.

"Sweetheart! Give me a second, I'm changing!" Clay's words came out in a rush.

The door opened.

Clay threw an arm around my shoulders and steered me away, no room for argument.

The force in it was enormous, as if terrified I might catch even a glimpse into the fitting room.

"Sweetheart, come on, I bought a stunning set of jewelry. You'll put it on and outshine any goddess in heaven."

His smile was tender and urgent all at once.

Clay went on,

"Paired with a white wedding gown, I can't even imagine how beautiful my sweetheart will be."

I went along with him, not arguing.

"Oh? Take me to see just how beautiful."

Seeing my attention pulled away, Clay let out a barely perceptible breath of relief and walked me off faster, arm still around me.

Yes.

The jewelry really was beautiful, glittering like starlight, and no woman can turn down beautiful things.

A pity, then, that I no longer even wanted Clay himself, which left these outside trinkets without the slightest meaning.

Just then, Maud, now changed back into her regular clothes, came walking over.

“You’re finally here, sis. I already had your gown taken out for you. Go put it on, quick. You’ll be the most beautiful bride in the world.”

She meant my custom-made gown. The one she’d been wearing while she pressed herself against Clay.

I waved her off, my finger pointing instead to the corner, to the gown no one had touched. A wedding dress black as ink.

“I think black suits me better.”

Maud clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.

“What? Black for a wedding? That’s bad luck.”

Clay’s face darkened too, and his fingers clamped around my wrist.

“That’s what widows wear! Odette, I’m still alive and well. Don’t be ridiculous.”

I just looked at them, calm, and let a small smile pull at my lips.

“Is that so? Because I think this color… is exactly right for a happy occasion like today.”

I stood in front of the mirror. The black gown was a black rose in full bloom, and against it my skin looked white as snow.

Stunning. Breathtaking.

One of a kind.

I ran my hand over the skirt, my voice quiet but landing clearly in Clay’s ears, and in Maud’s.

“White stands for purity? I think black is what deserves the woman I am today.”

Clay was still trying to stop me, his voice frayed with agitation.

“Sweetheart, enough. This black one really is bad luck. Go try the white again, or the red gown.”

Through the mirror I watched the impatience written all over his face, and I laughed.

“Clay. So we’re not breaking up?”

“Then I’ll say it. You and I don’t suit each other.”

Clay froze on the spot, his pupils quaking.

“Sweetheart, what did you say?”

Maud snapped straight into her performance, stamping her foot as if desperate.

“Odette, don’t be stubborn, all right? If you let Clay slip away, what other man in this world would dote like this on a woman pushing thirty?”

I turned slowly, my cold gaze settling on her face.

“I still remember, back when Mom and Dad brought me home, you held me and cried and swore you’d treat me as your real sister. That you’d never fight me, never take what was mine.”

“Maud, did you keep the part about not fighting? Or is it that even the words ‘never take’ are beyond you?”

“Know your place. You’re nothing but the family’s fake heiress.”

Under my stare her face drained white, and she stepped back without thinking.

That was when the doors of the bridal salon burst open with a crash.

A man with a twisted face rushed in, a thirty-centimeter blade in his hand, slashing at anyone he saw.

He was screaming.

“I’m forty and I still can’t get a wife. Why should you rich people get to?”

Screams broke out everywhere. Chaos. People scattering into a tangle.

Clay shouted.

“Maud, look out!”

The attacker drove the knife straight at Maud, who stood frozen in terror.

Clay lunged like something out of the sky, sweeping her into his arms and kicking the man away.

The man scrambled up, eyes bloodshot, scanning the crowd, and locked at last on me, alone, with no one to shield me.

A wet thud.

Agony tore through my stomach. I looked down at the blade sunk into my body.

Blood soaked the gown red in an instant.

The next second the world spun, and sleep dragged me under.

When I woke again, I was in a hospital.

To save me, Clay was having blood drawn from Maud, frantically, over and over.

The doctor was on his knees, his voice shaking.

“Mr. Gilbert. We can’t take any more. Miss Henson is already severely anemic. Drawing more could kill her.”

Clay’s eyes were red, his fist twisted into the doctor’s collar.

“Odette has a congenital clotting disorder. She has to be transfused. And Maud’s tough, she can take it. Draw it.”

Outside the door, Mom and Dad were sobbing their hearts out.

"Maud, please, you have to save Odette. She suffered so much as a child, she only just came home to us. We can't lose her now."

Maud's face was bloodless as paper, yet she still managed a weak little smile.

"It's all right. Clay, take as much as you need, as long as it saves her. Mom, Dad, you raised me all these years. This life of mine was yours to begin with."

She turned her head toward me, a flicker of triumph buried so deep in her eyes it was almost invisible, her voice soft as a sigh.

"So it turns out I have the same rare blood type too. That means I'm the only one who can save you now."

The whole room dissolved into grateful tears for Maud.

For one instant even I fell for it, as if refusing to be grateful to her would make me an ungrateful animal.

A tear slid from the corner of my eye. Not from the pain. From the cold.

I understood at last.

Understood why the "me" from five years in the future had fought so desperately to stop me from trying on that wedding gown.

This blade, this wound, was meant to chain me to Maud — the walking blood bank kept alive to treat me — and lock us together for good.

From now on she would be the whole family's savior, the mark of longing pressed into Clay's heart.

In the years to come, no matter how many times I caught them in the act, no matter how they flaunted their love in front of me.

What could I do?

I had taken her charity. I owed her my life.

I could already see it. In all the years ahead, every tonic, every jewel, every ounce of favor would pour toward her without end, restitution for the wronged fake heiress Maud Henson.

And I would go from cherished treasure to unwanted burden.

I looked at the crowd of relatives circling Maud, and at the man who stood there with red eyes, panicked over nothing but my blood.

Word by word, quietly, I severed every debt between us.

"Maud Henson's blood."

"I refuse it."

The room went dead silent in an instant.

Clay whipped around and stared at me, disbelieving. "Odette! Have you lost your mind? Do you want to die?"

I dragged out a smile, pale and cold, my voice clear and calm.

"I'd rather die than owe Maud Henson anything."

I lifted my eyes and looked straight into the eyes that had once doted on me, that had once favored me above everyone. Now there was nothing in them but shock and panic.

"Clay, Maud Henson's blood isn't clean."

"Once it touches me, I'll never wash the filth off as long as I live."