I had thought that being reborn meant I had already let go.

But I never expected that at this moment, my heart still felt as if something had been carved out, so raw, so hollow, it stole the air from my lungs.

I swallowed the ache and forced myself to move, fingers calmly unclasping the watch on my wrist.

The sharp click of the metal buckle echoed harshly in the study's dead silence.

“Maya!” Weston suddenly rose to his feet. “You don’t have to do this!”

“Uncle Weston.”

I cut him off gently and kept going.

“Rules are rules.”

My handbag. The watch. One by one, I removed my heels, folding each piece neatly and placing them on the floor with steady hands.

At last, I peeled off my stockings, bare feet meeting the icy marble below.

Eliza stood smirking, her eyes brimming with smug triumph.

Hunter’s face, on the other hand, had gone noticeably pale.

When my fingers reached for the buttons of my dress, he finally turned away, unable to watch.

“Enough!”

Weston’s voice trembled with fury and heartache.

“Maya, stop this!”

I calmly folded the dress and placed it on top of the handbag.

“From this moment on, I am just me.”

“My name is Maya Monroe. I am no longer the Emerson family’s child bride.”

When I stepped out the back door of the Emerson house, I wore nothing but my underwear.

At some point, a large crowd of reporters had gathered. The moment they saw me, they surged forward like a tidal wave.

“Miss Monroe, how does it feel to be kicked out by the Emerson family?”

“Is it true they didn’t even let you keep your underwear?”

The blinding flashes made me squint.

“Step aside,” I said quietly, my voice hoarse and unfamiliar to my ears.

Laughter erupted.

A male reporter at the front even angled his camera deliberately toward my body.

His face rang a bell, likely one of the regulars at Eliza’s birthday parties.

Clutching my chest, I forced myself through the crowd.

Someone shoved me hard. I stumbled and fell heavily to the ground.

My side slammed into a sharp rock, and blood spilled out in an instant.

I pressed my hand tightly over the wound, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

Gritting my teeth against the burning pain, I forced myself back on my feet and kept running.

The reporters, like sharks drawn to blood, chased after me mercilessly.

It wasn’t until I darted into a narrow alley that I finally lost them.

Just as I emerged from the alley’s shadow, a sleek black Maybach pulled up and blocked my path.

The window lowered slowly, revealing a strikingly handsome face.

“Miss Monroe, I’m Nico Sullivan from the Sullivan Group.”

He stepped out and gently draped his coat over my shoulders.

“My grandfather would like to meet you. May we?”

I stood frozen.

Nico Sullivan was the renowned young heir of the capital’s most powerful family.

The Sullivan family was a true aristocracy, deeply rooted and untouchable.

In my previous life, I had spent ten long years trying to earn even a distant connection with them.

And now, they had come to me.

I straightened my back and gave a steady nod.

“It would be my honor.”

..…

The next morning, inside the Emerson Villa, Hunter sat frozen, staring blankly at the phone screen in his hand.

Top trending headline: “Emerson family’s child bride Maya stripped of title, thrown out, and forced to walk the streets half-naked!”

“Where are our morals? Such disgrace!”

“If not for Young Master Emerson’s leftover pity, she wouldn’t have even left with her underwear!”

“Yesterday, she was the chief designer of Emerson Jewelry. Today, she’s beneath a beggar. What a fall from grace.”

“What’s the fuss? That’s how rich families treat their playthings!”

His finger tapped the video without thinking.

The image of her, bare, stumbling, drenched in shame, made his heart lurch.

When the camera swept across Maya’s bloodied side, lingering on the old scar across her abdomen, his entire body stiffened.

“Hunter, what are you watching?”

Eliza’s voice purred behind him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

But the moment her eyes landed on the screen, she let out a shrill laugh.

“That was absolutely worth it! I arranged dozens of media outlets just to catch her downfall, it was perfect!”

Hunter blinked in disbelief. “You set up the reporters?”

“Of course I did.” Eliza grinned and planted a smug kiss on his cheek. “Now the entire Delaware knows what kind of woman Maya really is.”

“No one will ever question your decision again.”

Hunter forced a smile, but unease coiled in his chest.

The image of Maya, wounded and exposed, kept playing in his mind like a haunting reel.

Moments later, he suddenly gripped Eliza’s wrist and yanked her into his arms.

Thinking he was overwhelmed with desire, Eliza giggled, eyes sultry. “What’s gotten into you, Hunter? You already had me three times last night. Want to go another round?”

Hunter remained silent. His fingers traced the curve of her waist, once, twice, then a third time.

But the longer his hand lingered, the colder his heart grew.

He reopened the video. This time, his eyes didn’t just watch. They searched.

And when they found what they were looking for on Maya’s body, his breath caught.

Seeing how fixated he was, Eliza grew irritated. She muttered with a jealous tone, “She actually dared to step out like that with nothing on? How shameless.”

“Good thing she got kicked out. Otherwise, she would’ve dragged the whole family down with her.”

But Hunter didn’t hear a single word.

His eyes stayed glued to the screen, searching for something he couldn’t seem to find.

After a pause, he shoved Eliza aside and rushed upstairs straight into Maya’s now-abandoned bedroom.

He pulled out the old storage box and began flipping through the stacks of childhood photos.

Photo after photo, thick with dust and time, but in the entire album, there was only one of Maya.

It had been taken over ten years ago, during a trip to Delaware by the seaside.

In the picture, he was holding Eliza’s hand, both of them smiling on the beach.

Maya stood far behind them, quiet and distant, holding his swim ring like an outsider frozen in the background.

Like a humble servant, she looked utterly out of place in the photo.

Yet even in that faded frame, it was clear that her shoulders and waist were wrapped in gauze.

Hunter froze. And in the next breath, memories crashed over him like a tidal wave.

That summer, he had snuck away to the back mountain to play. He accidentally tumbled down a steep slope, smashing his abdomen against a jagged rock.

Pain had blurred everything, his vision fading, until a girl appeared and carried him on her back, one shaky step at a time.

The mountain path was treacherous. The agony in his abdomen was unbearable. In a daze, he had bitten down on her shoulder with all his strength.

Her skin tore open. Blood streamed down her back.

But she never made a sound.

Instead, she had whispered, “Don’t be afraid. We’re almost at the hospital.”

When he came to, it was Eliza standing by his side.

The nurse had told him his kidney had been torn open by the impact, and he’d nearly bled out internally.

It was a miracle he had survived.

All thanks to the girl who had carried him through the mountains and given up a kidney to save him.

That girl had a bleeding disorder and nearly lost her life on the operating table from massive blood loss.

Lying in his hospital bed back then, he had asked Eliza if she had been the one who saved him.

For a split second, Eliza had frozen. But she hadn’t denied it.

Hunter’s body went rigid. His breath caught midair.

At that moment, what was left to doubt?

He had spent years believing it was Eliza who had risked everything for him.

That belief had bound his heart to her, and even her death had haunted him like a ghost.

But only now did he see the truth, how blind he had been.