"You look decent enough from the way you're dressed, but you've got zero sense of boundaries!"

"Can't blame Ms. Butler for being so on guard, though. Mr. Kensington has too many women throwing themselves at him. They'll try anything."

"And now one of them shows up pretending to be Mrs. Chapman's daughter. Disgusting."

The staff tossed me outside like garbage.

Maplewood Estate was the largest private villa community in the area, surrounded by nothing but empty roads and silence. The night wind cut straight to the bone.

I lay on the ground, letting the tears run freely down my face.

I couldn't understand it. All I'd done was come home, follow my mother's instructions to stay at the new house. How had that earned me this kind of humiliation?

If my mother knew that the daughter she loved most, the daughter she was proudest of, had been thrown out like trash, it would destroy her.

My wrist throbbed with a pain so sharp it felt like it was drilling into the bone. I forced myself to stand, planning to go straight back to the old house and get answers from my mother.

Before I could move, the shriek of brakes split the air behind me.

Someone was back.

I whipped around. Under the dim glow of the driveway lights, a tall figure stepped out.

Something about him felt vaguely familiar, but mostly, he was a stranger.

Dominic Kensington stopped in front of me, looking down with a flicker of confusion, as if he couldn't place who I was.

I latched onto him like a lifeline, staring up at his face, certain he would recognize me.

"Dominic, it's me. It's Astrid. You don't remember?"

At the name Astrid, Dominic frowned. Then he let out a cold, thin laugh.

"Even if you are Astrid Chapman, so what? She means nothing to me. My fiancée tells me you came here tonight looking for trouble."

The light in my eyes died. I almost wanted to laugh.

When we were ten, I'd watched him trail after me in tears, terrified his family would go bankrupt and he'd end up a homeless orphan.

I couldn't stand to see it. I spent three full days clinging to my mother, begging and pleading, until she agreed to a round of financing that put the Kensington family back on the market.

It was a childhood bond, sure. But a debt that enormous wasn't something you just forgot. And now he stood there pretending he didn't even know my face.

All that sincerity, wasted on someone who didn't deserve a drop of it.

I finally saw Dominic Kensington for what he really was, and the hatred burned so hot my teeth ached.

Before I could say another word, Lydia's voice rang out from behind us, giddy and breathless, as she latched onto Dominic's arm.

"I was just venting! I didn't think you'd actually come."

"This little tramp barged into the house, caused a scene, and had the nerve to pretend she's my mother's daughter. I'm so mad I could scream!"

Dominic smiled and gave her nose a playful pinch, his voice soft.

"It's ten o'clock. Shouldn't you say goodnight to Mrs. Chapman?"

The moment I heard that, my eyes snapped back to Lydia. If she dared make that call, my mother would recognize my voice in a heartbeat.

Lydia did exactly what I expected. She dialed right in front of me, putting it on speaker like a taunt. A voice came through.

"Hello, sweetie. What is it?"

My mother's voice.

Every ounce of hurt and injustice surged up at once. I lunged for the phone, desperate to grab it, desperate to demand answers.

Dominic seized my injured wrist and held me in place. The two of them worked in perfect tandem, taunting me to my face.

Lydia purred into the phone.

"Mom, I forgot to say goodnight! Get some rest, okay?"

There was a pause on the other end, maybe two seconds, then a quiet, resigned sigh.

"Don't call me that... You get some rest too."

Lydia cooed one last saccharine goodbye, hung up, and turned to me with a smile that could freeze blood.

"See? My mom has one daughter, and it's me. You? You're nothing."

"I was going to give you a chance earlier. You're the one who refused to leave. So fine. Let's play a game."

The word game set off every alarm in my body. I turned to run.

But Lydia would never pass up a chance to humiliate me. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me toward the backyard of the villa like it was payback she'd been saving up.

"You said this is your new home, didn't you? Then tell me, what's in the backyard?"

I stared at her blankly. I'd only learned a few days ago that my mother had spent a fortune buying me a house. I didn't know the layout at all.

It was laughable, really. This house belonged to me, yet I knew less about it than Lydia, this half-real, half-fake imposter.

When I couldn't answer, Lydia burst out laughing, her vanity thoroughly satisfied.

"My mom designed this garden just for me, based on everything I love. She knows I have a soft heart for animals, so she built me my own private conservatory. There are venomous snakes, lizards, cosmos flowers, hyacinths..."

"Every single section is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than you'll ever see in your lifetime!"

My brows snapped together. My mother had learned that my research was in biotechnology and had specifically prepared a flora and fauna research lab for me back home.

I just never imagined she'd built the entire laboratory right here in the backyard.

And Lydia had claimed it as her own, parading it around like a trophy.

I sucked in a sharp breath, then drove my knee hard into the back of Lydia's leg. She yelped in pain and her grip loosened.

I pulled out my phone, its screen shattered, battery nearly dead, and brought up my earlier conversation with the lawyer.

"Read it carefully. The property deed has my name on it, Astrid Chapman. If you don't believe me, go find the deed yourself!"

Lydia pressed her lips into a tight line. She had no answer, because she'd never had the deed.

The real property deed was inside my suitcase. All the shoving and fighting earlier had kept me from retrieving it.

Lydia forced out a cold smile.

"You're joking. A mansion worth tens of millions, and you expect anyone to believe it's yours?"

"This is the wedding gift my mom gave me!"

I didn't want to waste another word on Lydia. I turned to Dominic instead.

"The property deed and all the documents are in my suitcase. Go look for yourself. If I'm lying, I'll walk into a police station and turn myself in."

Maybe it was the dead seriousness in my voice. Dominic froze for two seconds, something shifting behind his eyes, as if he were actually considering it.

And those two seconds of hesitation, that flicker of attention toward me, sent Lydia's jealousy boiling over. The resentment inside her surged all over again.

She seized me without a second thought and hauled me through the conservatory to a sealed room housing venomous lizards. Her voice was vicious.

"Astrid, I have never once heard your name mentioned in the Chapman family. You just want to use this as an excuse to get close to Dominic!"

"Who do you think is going to believe a single word of your lies?"

"I warned you not to cross me. You didn't listen!"

I grabbed Lydia's wrist and held my ground, locked in a stalemate. Staring at her face, something clicked into place.

Lydia. I'd seen her somewhere before.

A faint memory surfaced. When I was still abroad, my mother had once shared photos from a family gathering and mentioned Lydia.

She was nothing more than Stella Cobb's daughter, the housekeeper's child, who'd lived in our home for nearly fifteen years.

She'd arrived at the Chapman estate the same year I'd left the country, my second year overseas.

We'd never met face to face. But how did a housekeeper's daughter have the nerve to scream in my face like this?

My voice went cold, each word landing like a stone.

"You're going to regret this."

Lydia flashed a saccharine smile. Then she ordered the two household staff to shove me into the room crawling with venomous insects.

Through the large glass window, Dominic and Lydia stood with their arms crossed, watching me like I was entertainment.

I looked around the unfamiliar room, at the things skittering and rustling across every surface, and my mind flashed to those days running biochemistry experiments abroad.

Dread coiled tight in my chest, wave after wave.

I slammed my palms against the glass and screamed until my throat tore raw.

"Let me out! I'm the only daughter of the Chapman family. You'll pay for this!"

If my mother ever found out that the daughter she cherished most in this world had been tossed in here like a toy, she would tear them apart.

I screamed for help. My left wrist had already swollen red, and every movement sent a stabbing pain straight through to the bone.

Lydia hesitated for less than half a second before a smile spread across her face. She mouthed the words at me through the glass, taunting:

"Then let's see who pays first."

My eyes went wide with terror. My breathing grew shallow, faster and faster, as something that looked like a centipede crawled onto my ankle.

Cold against my skin. Then an itch that spread like fire.

I had severe claustrophobia. Sealed spaces triggered a suffocation response if I stayed too long.

It was the whole reason I'd chosen to live and study abroad all those years, to get the medical treatment I needed.

Nearly a decade of stability, shattered in a single moment.

My hands flew to my own throat, clawing at it. My vision darkened at the edges. Each breath came harder than the last.

I locked my gaze on Dominic, standing right beside Lydia, and my eyes burned so red they could have bled.