Chapter 3

Kandy's hysterical laughter echoed off the peeling wallpaper. It was loud, forced, and desperate. But it died in her throat the moment she realized Janet wasn't reacting.

Janet just stood there, her dark eyes locked onto Kandy with the detached fascination of a scientist observing a struggling insect.

Humiliated by the silence, Kandy decided to go for the throat. She targeted the one thing she knew would draw blood.

"You're just as pathetic as Marlene," Kandy sneered, using Janet's mother's first name with deliberate disrespect. "A miserable, subprime mortgage gambler. She couldn't pay her debts, so she sold her own daughter to a deformed vegetable."

Janet's body went completely rigid.

The strange energy in her blood spiked. Tiny, invisible sparks crackled at the very tips of her fingers, begging for a release.

Kandy didn't notice the danger. She leaned in, her lips curling into an ugly sneer. "Your mother was crying like a street whore in bankruptcy court-"

Janet moved.

She didn't step; she launched. The distance between them vanished in less than a second. Kandy's pupils dilated in sudden terror. The insult died on her tongue. She didn't even have time to raise her hands.

Janet's right hand swung in a perfect, brutal arc.

The slap sounded like a gunshot in the cramped room.

The sheer kinetic force of the blow threw Kandy off balance. Her head snapped to the side, and her body slammed violently into the solid wood of the wardrobe. She slid down the door, her expensive dress bunching up around her thighs.

Kandy sat on the floor, stunned. She slowly brought her trembling hand to her rapidly swelling left cheek. She looked down at her fingers. There was a smear of blood where her own five-carat diamond had scraped against her skin from the impact.

The sight of her own blood shattered Kandy's sanity.

She let out a feral, bloodcurdling scream. She scrambled up from the floor, her manicured hands hooked into claws, aiming directly for Janet's eyes.

Janet didn't flinch. She simply pivoted on her heel, letting Kandy's momentum carry her forward. Janet grabbed Kandy's outstretched arm, twisted it sharply, and pinned it high up between Kandy's shoulder blades.

With a hard shove, Janet slammed Kandy face-first into the cold drywall.

Kandy whimpered, her face squashed against the peeling paint, completely immobilized.

Janet leaned in. Her lips were barely an inch from Kandy's ear.

"You talk about his perfect life, his perfect future," Janet whispered. Her voice was the chilling calm of a grim reaper reading a sentence. "But have you actually looked at him, Kandy? Looked past the tailored suits and the trust fund?"

Kandy's struggles stopped instantly. Her body went stiff against the wall. The sheer weight of Janet's absolute certainty created a terrifying blank space in her rage.

"The exhaustion he can't hide? The way his hands shake when he thinks no one is watching?" Janet continued, her voice slipping into Kandy's ear like ice water. "You saw the money, Kandy. You saw the penthouse. But you didn't look close enough at the man. You're building your entire dynasty on a foundation of sand."

"No," Kandy choked out, shaking her head against the wall. "He's the strongest man on Wall Street. You're lying. You're just trying to scare me."

Janet let out a dark, humorless chuckle. She released Kandy's arm and stepped back, letting the girl slide down the wall like a discarded ragdoll.

"Next time you're in that beautiful Tribeca penthouse," Janet commanded, staring down at her, "pay attention to the prescriptions hidden behind his imported cologne. Pay attention to the reality you just married into."

Kandy pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. Her legs were shaking so violently she couldn't stand. She looked up at Janet, her eyes wide with a horrifying mix of denial and dawning realization.

"You're making this up!" Kandy screamed, her voice cracking. "You're a jealous psycho!"

Janet looked at her with absolute disgust.

"Think about your precious future, Kandy. Those four kids you bragged about. What did they look like?"

Kandy's breath hitched. Her eyes darted frantically as she dug into her polluted reborn memories.

"They were blonde," Janet said softly, delivering the final, fatal blow. "Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Jax Adler has dominant dark hair and brown eyes. Basic genetics, Kandy. It's impossible."

Kandy's brain short-circuited. The fragmented memories of the future collided with the brutal biological facts Janet just laid out. The image of the four perfect children suddenly twisted into a grotesque mockery.

She realized she hadn't stolen a billionaire dynasty. She had stolen a dying man and a lifetime of being a cuckold.

Kandy clutched her head, her fingers digging into her scalp. She let out a low, agonizing wail of pure psychological defeat.

Janet stood over her, watching the breakdown without a single ounce of empathy. A slow, terrifyingly controlled smile spread across Janet's face. It was the smile of someone who held all the cards and enjoyed watching the house burn down.