Chapter 2

Blake Poole POV:

No. The answer was a silent, vehement refusal that echoed in the hollow chambers of my heart. I wasn't going back to that house, to those people. Not after everything.

The hospital's notice had arrived that morning, a stark white envelope filled with cold, impersonal words. My insurance coverage was running out. The experimental treatments, the endless scans, the palliative care-it all cost money, money I didn't have much of left. My trust fund, the inheritance from my mother that was supposed to secure my future, was still locked away, inaccessible. And there was the other part, the reason I truly needed to go back: Mom's wedding gown. The custom-made masterpiece she had worn, entrusted to me before her death. It was the only tangible link I had left to her, and it was rightfully mine.

So, despite the 'no' screaming in my head, my feet carried me back. Back to the sprawling Bradford estate, a mansion that once felt like a home, now a gilded cage of painful memories. The wrought-iron gates, familiar yet menacing, slowly swung open.

Brandt was waiting by the entrance, his hands shoved into the pockets of his tailored suit. He reached out a hand, a gesture of hesitant comfort, but I flinched back, a reflex born of years of emotional and physical bruising. He saw it, the almost imperceptible recoil, and his hand dropped, hanging awkwardly in the air.

"Just trying to help you with your bag," he mumbled, his gaze fixed somewhere over my shoulder. The air between us was thick, heavy with unspoken words, with years of hurt and resentment.

"I can manage," I replied, my voice flat, holding my small duffle bag tighter. I preferred to carry my own burdens, physical or otherwise. It was safer that way. Less expectation, less disappointment.

The drive from the cemetery to the house had been silent, the luxury car a cocoon of tension. Now, the silence stretched again as we walked through the grand foyer, past the portraits of ancestors I barely recognized, towards the heart of the house.

Then, a voice, sweet as honey, sharp as a razor. "Blake! You're really back!"

Gabriela. Her eyes, wide and seemingly innocent, held a predatory gleam I knew all too well. She glided down the sweeping staircase, a vision in a pastel dress, her smile too bright, too perfect. She hugged me, a quick, almost perfunctory embrace, but I felt the calculated tension in her body, the barely contained triumph. She thought she'd won.

She thought I was here to reclaim my place, to fight for a family that had long ago discarded me. She thought I was still the same fragile, insecure girl she had so easily manipulated. But she was wrong. The girl she knew was gone, replaced by someone hollowed out, someone who had no fight left for trivial battles. My illness had taken so much, but it had also given me a strange kind of peace, an acceptance that transcended their petty games. My priorities had shifted. All I wanted now was to die in peace, near my mother.

"It's good to see you, Gabriela," I said, my voice calm, almost detached. My gaze flickered to the engagement ring glittering on her left hand. It was a substantial diamond, a symbol of everything she had stolen from me.

Ford, my father, emerged from his study, his presence still as imposing as ever, but his face etched with a new, weary lines. He nodded curtly at me, a distant acknowledgment. His coldness was a familiar weight, a constant in my turbulent life. He was the unmoving force, the architect of my exile, and his indifference was a shield I had learned to live behind.

I didn't waste time on pleasantries. My eyes scanned the familiar surroundings, looking for something. "Where's Mom's wedding dress?" I asked, my voice cutting through the polite facade. My trust fund was one thing, but that dress... that was my mother.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Davis, a kind woman who had always treated me with a gentle pity, wrung her hands. "Oh, Miss Blake... the dress..." She trailed off, her eyes darting nervously towards Gabriela.

My stomach dropped. I already knew. A cold dread seeped into my bones.

"Gabriela has it," Brandt supplied, his voice flat. "It looked beautiful on her. She's getting married next month, you know."

Anger, cold and sharp, pierced through the numbness that had become my constant companion. Not for the money, not for their affection, but for this. For Mom's dress. It wasn't just fabric; it was memories, a legacy, a piece of my mother I thought was safe, waiting for me. And they had given it to her. To her.

"She's getting married?" I asked, my voice dangerously calm, the words tasting like ash. "To whom?" I already knew, deep down, a sickening premonition twisting my gut.

Gabriela's smile widened, a triumphant smirk she barely bothered to hide. She held up her left hand, the diamond flashing. "To Corey, of course! He proposed last month. Isn't it wonderful?"

My breath hitched. Corey. My Corey. My childhood sweetheart, the boy who had once sworn to protect me, who had promised me forever. The boy whose hands had broken my leg, ending my dreams. The boy who had chosen Gabriela over me, time and again. The boy who was now about to marry her, wearing my mother's dress.

A cold wave washed over me, and for a moment, the world tilted. Corey. How could he? I remembered him, so clearly, standing up for me in elementary school, pushing away the bullies, his small hand tucked firmly in mine. "Leave Blake alone!" he'd shouted once, his face red with indignation.

Then, things started to shift. After Mom died, after Gabriela came, Corey started to pull away. He'd spend more time with Gabriela, listening to her innocent-sounding stories, believing her manufactured tears. I remembered the day I caught them in the library, his arm around her, comforting her after some made-up slight. I confronted him, tears streaming down my face. "Corey, how could you? Don't you see what she's doing?"

He had looked at me, not with the familiar warmth, but with a flicker of annoyance. "Blake, she's so fragile. You always make a scene." His words had been a physical blow, worse than any punch. "And stop calling her 'the new girl,' Blake. She's Gabriela now."

I remembered begging him, crying, "Please, Corey, don't leave me. You're all I have." He had gently, but firmly, pushed my hands away. "You're suffocating me, Blake. You're always so... much."

Then came the "kidnapping." Gabriela, tears streaming, a bruised cheek, whispering my name. Corey, his eyes filled with a rage I'd never seen, believing her every word. He had pinned me against the wall, his grip like iron, his face inches from mine. "You're a sick, twisted bitch, Blake! You hurt her! You hurt Gabriela!" The kick, swift and brutal, to my knee. The sickening crack that echoed in my bones, shattering not just my leg, but my future. My ballet career, everything I had worked for, gone in an instant. And he had just watched me fall, his face a mask of disgust, before turning to comfort Gabriela.

Now, he was marrying her. Wearing Mom's dress. My dress.

My world, which had already been reduced to a finite countdown, suddenly felt utterly barren. They had taken everything. My mother, my place in the family, my career, my sanity, my love. Now, even the last sacred memory, my mother's dress, was not safe from their grasping hands. I had nothing left. Nothing.