Chapter 1

My name is Sarah Miller.

I was nineteen.

College was almost over.

I studied journalism.

My future felt bright.

I was in love with Ethan Hayes.

He was a business major.

His family was rich, powerful.

Ethan showed me a world I never knew.

Fancy restaurants, fast cars, endless parties.

He said he loved my adventurous spirit.

He encouraged it.

I felt alive with him.

The night of my college graduation was supposed to be perfect.

I had won a prestigious internship at a national newspaper.

My parents, David and Maria Miller, beamed with pride.

My father was a journalist, a good one.

He taught me about integrity, about truth.

The party was at a fancy hotel ballroom.

Ethan had arranged it all.

He smiled at me, a charming, perfect smile.

Then the lights dimmed.

A projector flickered on.

My heart pounded.

Was this a surprise for me?

Intimate photos of Ethan and me flashed on the huge screen.

Videos.

Personal moments.

Things no one else should ever see.

The room went silent, then whispers started.

Laughter, cruel and sharp.

My face burned.

I wanted to disappear.

Ethan stood beside the screen, a microphone in his hand.

His charming smile was gone.

His eyes were cold.

He looked at my father.

"Mr. Miller," Ethan's voice boomed.

"Your daughter isn't the angel you think. See how wild she is in private?"

He pointed to a photo, a moment where we' d joked about a pregnancy scare.

It wasn't real then.

But the implication hung in the air, ugly and heavy.

My father' s face went pale.

My mother gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

"This is for Olivia," Ethan said, his voice like ice.

"Olivia Vance. You remember her, don't you, Mr. Miller?"

My father nodded slowly, his eyes wide with dawning horror.

"Years ago, you wrote an exposé," Ethan continued.

"Illegal recruitment, substance abuse in college athletics. It destroyed Olivia's career. She was a star athlete, my first love."

His voice cracked, just for a second.

"She had a public breakdown. She tried to kill herself. She's been in a coma, a vegetative state, ever since. You killed her, Mr. Miller. Your words, your story, they killed the woman I loved."

The room spun.

My internship, the one I was so proud of, was revoked the next day.

The shame was a heavy blanket.

My father, David Miller, couldn't bear it.

The shock, the public disgrace.

He had a massive heart attack that night.

He died.

My mother, Maria, her health already fragile, crumbled.

Grief consumed her.

She passed away within weeks.

I was alone.

Ostracized.

The golden days were shattered glass under my feet.

Soon after, I found out I was pregnant.

Ethan' s child.

A tiny, unwanted echo of a love that had turned into a weapon.

But Lily became my reason to live.

Five years passed.

Five years of scraping by.

Waitressing, cleaning toilets, delivering food.

Anything to keep a roof over Lily' s head, food in her small belly.

Lily. My sweet, observant Lily.

Then, the diagnosis.

A rare, aggressive leukemia.

She needed a bone marrow transplant.

Experimental treatments.

Incredibly expensive.

My world narrowed to one single, desperate focus: save Lily.

I was working as a temp for a high-end catering company.

A charity gala. Rich people, glittering jewels.

I carried a tray of champagne flutes.

My mind was on Lily' s latest blood test results.

I wasn't paying enough attention.

I bumped into a woman.

Drinks spilled.

Champagne soaked her expensive dress.

She shrieked.

"You clumsy idiot! Do you know how much this dress costs?"

Her voice was sharp, full of contempt.

My face burned again, a familiar heat.

I started to apologize, to stammer.

"I'll handle this."

A voice.

Deep, familiar.

A voice I heard in my nightmares.

Ethan Hayes.

He stood there, older, harder, but unmistakably him.

Powerful CEO. Host of the gala.

He didn't look at me.

He didn't acknowledge me at all.

He calmed the furious guest, his voice smooth, authoritative.

Then, he turned to the center of the room.

He raised his glass.

"And now, a special announcement."

He smiled, that charming smile I remembered, the one that hid a monster.

He walked towards a woman seated at a prominent table.

Olivia Vance.

She was awake. Recovered. Beautiful.

Ethan knelt.

He held out a diamond ring.

"Olivia, my love, will you marry me?"

The room erupted in applause.

Olivia' s eyes, bright and possessive, found mine across the room for a fleeting second.

A small, triumphant smirk played on her lips.

This gala, I realized, was partly a celebration of her recovery.

Her awakening from the coma Ethan had blamed my father for.

Ethan spoke again, his voice filled with emotion.

"Olivia's recovery has been a miracle. But she needs ongoing, specialized care. Complications from her long coma, her past trauma. It's very expensive."

He paused, looking directly at Olivia with adoration.

"But I've found a promising, privately funded experimental treatment program for her. Nothing is too much for my Olivia."

My heart sank.

He was moving on, building a future.

While I was trapped, still paying for a past he had orchestrated.

The irony was a bitter pill.

Olivia needed expensive treatment.

Lily needed expensive treatment.

And Ethan, the man who had destroyed my life, held all the cards.

He turned to the catering manager, his voice cold again.

"That waitress," he said, gesturing vaguely in my direction without looking at me. "She' s incompetent. Fire her."

The manager nodded quickly. "Yes, Mr. Hayes."

I stood there, tray still in hand, as my world crumbled a little more.