“Hey, look! Isn’t that Mr. Blackthorne and Miss Frost?” one of the maids suddenly gasped.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I glanced at my phone. A blogger was doing random street interviews under a ‘time capsule’ theme—and just by chance, they’d interviewed Vincent and Sable.

Vincent wore his usual blank expression, clearly uninterested. But Sable was excited, practically glowing with enthusiasm. Vincent humored her, playing the doting boyfriend.

The blogger read their random question aloud:

“If you could go back five years, what would you do?”

Sable frowned, pretending to struggle for an answer.

Vincent pulled her closer, his voice dangerously soft, but his words sharp as knives.

“I would have killed anyone who tried to approach me with ulterior motives... and made sure I met Sable, much sooner.”

The tenderness was for Sable. She leaned into him, glowing with happiness.

While the cruelty was for me.

My grip on the phone tightened, my heart sinking. He still hated me this much. But I didn’t care anymore.

I printed Sable’s picture, slid it into the album of his mistresses and wrote: 100. Goodbye. I locked it away in the study drawer, along with the signed divorce papers.

A parting gift for Vincent. He’d like it.

After that, I quietly began packing my things.

When Vincent and Sable returned, I had just tossed a woven blanket into the trash bin.

“What are you doing?” Vincent asked.

My body stiffened slightly. “Sort thing out where it belong to garbage,” I said flatly.

He walked over and saw the bin full of handmade crafts I’d once made for him, along with several expensive dresses he’d given me.

“You never even wore these dresses. How are they garbage?” he frowned.

Without stopping my hands, I replied calmly, “Some things just aren’t meant to fit. No point forcing it.”

Like people. After five years, I had finally seen things clearly.

Vincent seemed to sense the underlying meaning behind my words, his frown deepening.

Before he could say anything, Sable clung to his arm and pouted. “Vincent, I’m tired. Can I sleep in that room tonight?” She pointed at the master bedroom.

Vincent pressed his lips together. “Sable just had skin graft surgery. She’s uncomfortable at night. It’ll be easier for me to take care of her if she sleeps in the master bedroom.”

I raised my eyes and met Sable’s deliberately provocative gaze.

She was challenging me.

After all, the master bedroom was my last stronghold.

In the past, I would throw a fit every time he tried to let one of his women stay there. But now… I didn’t care anymore.

I simply nodded. “Alright. I’ll go pack up my things.”

The master bedroom was filled with memories I had poured my heart into. It took me an entire afternoon to clear it out.

When Vincent saw the empty room, his expression grew strange.

“Sable’s only staying temporarily. Once she’s better, she’ll move out. Why pack everything so thoroughly?”

“I’d rather replace things when the time comes than cling to the old,” I answered smoothly.

Vincent stared at me suspiciously. “Andrea, you’re not acting like yourself. What are you plotting?”

I said nothing.

Just then, Sable let out a little gasp. “Wow, this bracelet is gorgeous!”

I looked up sharply and saw her holding a pale pink agate bracelet from my vanity.

My chest tightened. I quickly strode over. “Give it back.”

Sable turned to Vincent with wide, innocent eyes. “Vincent, I really like this one.”

Before Vincent could respond, I cut in firmly, “That’s mine.”

My tone was sharp and Vincent’s face darkened.

“It’s just a stupid bracelet. She’s giving you some face by even liking it. Stop making a scene,” he snapped.

I was fuming. “That bracelet was my mother’s!”

I was an illegitimate child, raised secretly in the countryside with my younger brother. My foster mother was poor. That bracelet was a gift she saved up for months to buy me for my coming-of-age.

Vincent knew that.

His brows furrowed; he hesitated as he glanced at Sable.

Sable, ever the manipulator, quickly played innocent. “I’m so sorry, Andrea. I didn’t realize it was that important to you. Here, I’ll give it back.”

She reached out, but as she did, her fingers conveniently slipped.

The bracelet fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

My outstretched hand froze mid-air, as I watched the last thing my mother ever gave me break beyond repair.

The tears came before I could stop them, but I swallowed my sobs and slapped her across the face.

Sable stumbled back in shock, hitting her head on the dresser, a bruise immediately forming on her forehead.

Vincent exploded. He slapped me so hard I fell to the ground, my ears ringing. My hand landed in the broken shards, instantly drawing blood.

Sable burst into tears, wailing, “Vincent, my face! Am I going to be disfigured?”

Her face—so much like my sister’s—only fueled his fury.

Vincent scooped her up protectively. “It’s okay, Sweetheart. I’ll take you to the hospital.”

He stormed out so fast that he knocked over the decor by the cabinet. A plaster statue crashed down, landing squarely on my head, blood gushing down my face.

But he didn’t even glance back.

I was used to this. Calmly, I pulled out my phone and called for an ambulance.

When I woke up, Vincent was sitting by my hospital bed, face like stone.

Usually, he would be screaming at me by now.

Instead, he glanced at me coldly and said, “Tomorrow, we’re going to Emerald Island. You used to train for mermaid shows, didn’t you? Sable’s willing to forgive you if you perform for her. Consider it your apology.” 

I had learned mermaid performances because Vincent loved watching underwater shows. I wanted to be closer to him.

I had even secretly rented an entire aquarium for his birthday, just to surprise him.

But the moment he saw me in that tank, the revulsion in his eyes was searing.

He ordered the guards to rip off my oxygen mask, leaving me trapped underwater for nearly an hour.

I blacked out from oxygen deprivation before he finally let me out.

Since then, I’ve been terrified of water.

“I’m not going,” I said instinctively.

He didn’t even bother to argue.

The next morning, he had me forcibly dragged onto a helicopter.

As the rotors lifted us into the sky, my stomach twisted into knots.

The sea surrounding Emerald Island sparkled under the sun, stretching endlessly into the horizon. To anyone else, it was paradise.

But as I stared at the waves gently rising and falling, all I felt was a suffocating dread tightening around my chest.

The moment we landed, I broke into a run, sprinting toward the far edge of the island.

Strangely, he didn’t come after me.

A surge of unease crawled up my spine.

Suddenly, the clear blue sky darkened.

The bright sunshine vanished as thick storm clouds rolled in.

The wind howled and I knew a storm was coming fast.

Panicked, I called him.

“Where are you? Where am I supposed to stay tonight?”

He chuckled coldly on the other end.

“After everything you’ve done, you still expect me to give you shelter? You really do live in a fantasy world.”

My anxiety spiked. “What do you mean?”

The wind picked up sharply, but his voice was even colder. “We’re taking the chopper back. The signal here will be cut soon. If you want to survive, figure it out yourself.”

The line went dead, his words slicing through me like knives.

Clutching my jacket tighter around me, I heard the first rumble of thunder in the distance.

And then it started.

Large raindrops pelted down, the horizon disappearing as the sea grew wild and angry.

My eyes widened in terror.

I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Thunder cracked, wind roared, waves swelled like monsters and crashed down on me.

The churning sea swallowed me whole.

My screams were drowned out by the violent water.

Lightning slashed through the sky, illuminating everything for a brief, terrifying moment.

As my consciousness slipped away, I saw them—

In that flicker of light, my adoptive parents smiled at me gently.

“Sweetheart, your birth father has been looking for you. Do you want to go home with him?”

No. 

If this was the price of being a Leighton, I’d rather stay in that quiet little mountain village forever.

I didn’t want blood ties.

I didn’t want to know Vincent.

The sharp smell of disinfectant pulled me back to consciousness.

I opened my eyes to a stark white ceiling, machines beeping steadily beside me.

Sable’s voice was the first thing I heard. “You’ve got some nerve. Can’t believe those fishermen actually managed to pull you out alive.”

Turning my head, I saw her standing by the bed, her usual sweet act long gone. Instead, she reached out and gripped my throat, squeezing hard.

“Why won’t you just die, Andrea?! If you were dead, I could finally be Mrs. Blackthorne.”

“Can’t you see it? Vincent doesn’t love you. You’re like a stray dog clinging to a marriage you stole. Pathetic.”

“It only took one word from me for him to abandon you on that island, knowing you’re terrified of water. Do you still not get who he truly cares about?”

Her grip tightened. She wasn’t bluffing—she fully intended to choke me to death.

I couldn’t breathe. My instincts kicked in and I struggled to fight her off.

The next moment, she suddenly let go, her body stumbling backward. She knocked into a medical tray, sending instruments clattering. A sharp pair of scissors sliced across her hand, leaving a bloody gash.

Sable let out a high-pitched scream. “Andrea, why did you push me?!”

Before I could even react, Vincent walked in.

Tears welled up in Sable’s eyes immediately. “Vincent… I was just checking on Andrea and she—”

She didn’t even need to finish. The implication hung in the air like poison.

Vincent didn’t even bother asking for my side of the story. His mouth opened, ready to lash into me.

But when he noticed how pale I looked, for once, he held his tongue. Instead, he scooped up the bleeding Sable and rushed her out of the room.

Ten minutes later, he stormed back in, face like thunder. Without a word, he yanked me off the bed.

I stumbled. “Let go! What do you want?!”

“Sable’s condition worsened because of you. She’s bleeding heavily. You share a blood type. You’re giving her a transfusion.” His voice was low, cold.

I froze. I had never once heard of any chronic illness she had. And after barely surviving that nightmare on Emerald Island, my body could hardly handle anything more.

I struggled desperately. “I’m not doing it! Let me go!”

Vincent gripped my wrist even tighter. “You don’t get a say.”

He shoved me toward the doctors.

One of them hesitated. “But she is severely weak after everything she’s been through. Forcing a transfusion now could cause irreversible harm.”

Vincent’s face was ice. “Sable’s life comes first. Do it.”

The needle pierced my skin. My blood drained quickly, leaving my entire body aching, especially my lower abdomen.

Something warm trickled beneath me. Sticky. Hot.

It wasn’t my period.

A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I clutched my stomach as pain overtook me and then everything went black.

When I woke up again, the doctor was sitting beside me with a solemn expression.

“Miss Leighton… I’m sorry. After the trauma your body’s been through… you lost the baby.”

I froze. “The baby?”

He nodded. “You were only about a month along. With your anemia and the great number blood loss… it couldn’t survive.”

I placed my hand over my stomach, unable to say a word.

The tiny life I hadn’t even known was there—gone.

Maybe this was fate.

Outside, loud booms suddenly filled the air, followed by a chain of explosive bursts.

Fireworks. Giant ones, painting the daytime sky with brilliant color, dazzling even in broad daylight.

A group of young nurses crowded by the window, chatting excitedly.

“Did you hear? The CEO of Blackthorne threw this fireworks show to celebrate his wife’s pregnancy. So romantic.”

“Ugh, if I had a husband like that, I could die happy.”

“He’s planning a huge party next week too, I heard. Whoever that Mrs. Blackthorne is so lucky!”

If I weren’t Mrs. Blackthorne myself, I probably would’ve swooned over such a grand romantic gesture too.

But unfortunately, I am her.

My mind drifted back to a year ago.