Chapter 4 Some lives are written in the stars..

"Some lives are written in the stars, while others are shaped by every painful step toward survival."

Elena Carter had never known a world where things were easy.

She remembered the small apartment - the peeling wallpaper, the cramped living room where they had to rearrange the furniture every few months just to make room for a new stack of bills. It had been a modest life, but a warm one. A life where love was given freely, even if it couldn't be bought.

Her mother had always told her stories. Beautiful, fantastical stories that kept the cold of their one-bedroom apartment at bay.

"You are stronger than you think," her mother would say, tucking a loose strand of Elena's dark hair behind her ear. "You're not defined by where you start, but by where you go."

Elena had believed those stories - when she was young, at least. She had believed that one day, everything would make sense. That the struggle, the long nights and tired mornings, would one day be a distant memory.

But the years had a way of erasing dreams.

She had been sixteen when her mother's health had started to fail - a sudden cough that turned into something more, and then something worse. Doctors had called it a "freak accident," an illness that no one could explain, but it had ripped her family apart, piece by piece. Her mother's condition had grown more dire with each passing day, and despite Elena's best efforts to keep it together, she'd found herself sinking further into debt.

It was the night her mother had died - a cold December evening when the world outside was buried in snow - that Elena knew her life was no longer her own.

She had been sitting at her mother's bedside, her hand clutching the fragile one that had once held the strength of the world. Elena had always been her mother's protector, but in that moment, it was her mother who had to comfort her.

"I'm sorry, baby," her mother had whispered weakly, her voice hoarse and frail. "I couldn't give you the life I wanted."

Elena had shaken her head, tears slipping down her face. "Don't say that, Mom. You gave me everything."

But her mother's smile had been bittersweet. "I gave you love. But I couldn't give you the chance to be something more. Promise me something, Elena... promise me you'll never stop trying to find a way out."

Those words had haunted her in the years that followed. She had tried. She had tried so hard. Working late shifts at the diner, skipping meals just to buy books for her younger brother, Sam. But the weight of it all - the constant fear of losing everything - had never lifted.

And now, Sam was sick. She had tried everything: the GoFundMe campaigns, the medical loans, the charity events. But none of it had worked. His condition had only worsened, and with each doctor's visit, her hope had drained away.

When the woman had shown up at her apartment, promising to solve all of it in exchange for Elena's compliance, it had felt like a lifeline.

In this new world, she could save Sam. She could keep the promise she'd made to her mother. She could walk into the life her mother had dreamed of for her - even if it meant becoming someone she wasn't.

The contract was straightforward, even cold. But desperation had a way of making choices easier.

And now, here she was, living a life she never imagined, with a man who would never be hers - playing a role for the sake of a family she had barely managed to keep afloat.

Elena closed her eyes, remembering the warmth of her mother's embrace on the coldest nights. The nights when they had nothing but each other. And now, even with all the wealth that Alexander Kane could offer her, Elena realized something painful:

Money couldn't buy back what she'd lost.

She could save her brother. She could survive. But at what cost?

She let out a shaky breath. I'll make it work, she promised herself, straightening her back. For Sam. For Mom. For me.

With one final glance at the quiet hospital room where her brother slept, Elena Carter stepped into a future she never asked for, but one she would face with every ounce of strength her mother had taught her to carry.