Chapter 3

A few days later, I found Bethany in the library, preening over the magazine that featured her on the cover. She looked up as I entered, her smile a sickly sweet poison.

"Sister," she said, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "I' m so sorry about all the terrible things people are saying about you. It must be so hard."

"I' ll manage," I said, my voice cool.

She stood up and walked towards me, holding the magazine out. "Look. They' re calling me the Oracle. Isn' t it wonderful? Father is so proud. We' re all going to be so much more powerful now."

The 'we' was a deliberate cruelty. She meant her and our father. I was not included.

"You' re playing a dangerous game, Bethany," I said, looking her directly in the eye.

Her smile faltered for a second. "I don' t know what you mean."

"You' re building a house of cards on a foundation of lies. It will collapse."

Anger flashed in her eyes before being replaced by her usual mask of hurt innocence. "You' re just jealous. You' ve always been jealous of me."

I had heard this line a thousand times. This time, I didn' t let it pass. I took a step forward, my patience gone.

"Jealous of what? Your cheap bracelet? Your desperate need for attention? You have nothing that I want."

I reached out and grabbed her wrist, my fingers closing over the gaudy gold bracelet. She yelped, trying to pull away, a look of pure panic on her face.

"Let go of me!" she shrieked.

"What' s under here, Bethany? What are you so afraid of people seeing? The truth? That there' s nothing there?"

My voice was a low snarl. I was about to rip the bracelet off and expose her right then and there.

"What the hell do you think you' re doing?"

Liam' s voice cut through the tension like a whip. He stormed into the library, his face contorted in a mask of rage. He rushed forward and violently shoved me away from Bethany. I stumbled backward, catching myself on a bookshelf.

Bethany immediately ran to his side, burying her face in his chest and letting out a series of pathetic, theatrical sobs.

"Liam! She attacked me! She' s gone crazy with jealousy!"

Liam wrapped his arms around her, glaring at me over her head. His eyes were filled with pure hatred.

"Leave her alone, Ava," he growled. "You' re just bitter that I chose her over you. You tried this before, trying to hurt her, trying to claim her gift was yours. I remember."

The twisted memory from our wedding night. He didn't understand what it was, but he remembered the feeling. He remembered me as the aggressor, the liar.

"You remember nothing," I said, my voice shaking with fury.

My father, drawn by the commotion, rushed into the room. He saw Bethany crying in Liam' s arms and me standing apart, and he immediately drew his own conclusions.

"Ava! I told you to leave your sister alone!"

"She' s a fraud, Father!" I yelled, the words finally bursting out of me. "She' s lying to you! To everyone!"

"That' s enough!" he shouted, his face purple with rage. "I' ve just come from a board meeting. Thanks to Bethany' s insight, she has been given a position in the corporate strategy department. Your position."

The words hit me like a physical blow. The job I had worked for, the one place I had managed to carve out for myself, was gone. Given to her.

"She knows nothing about corporate strategy!" I protested, my voice raw.

"She has a gift that is more valuable than any degree or experience you have," my father retorted coldly. "The board agrees. You are out."

Bethany, peeking from behind Liam' s shoulder, gave me a look of pure, unadulterated triumph.

Two weeks later, Bethany, now a rising star in the corporate world, made her next big move. She held a press conference, announcing another "vision."

"I foresee a massive surge in the value of Helios Corp," she declared, her voice ringing with false confidence. "Their new solar technology is about to revolutionize the energy sector. I urge everyone to invest now. This is the opportunity of a lifetime."

The market went into a frenzy. Billions of dollars poured into Helios Corp stock from investors, big and small, all desperate to cash in on the Oracle' s prediction.

I knew better. My own foresight, the real, painful, draining gift, showed me a different picture. Helios Corp' s technology was flawed. There was a critical defect in their design that would be exposed in a matter of days, and the stock would be worthless.

I went to my father' s office, my research in hand, showing the technical analysis, the market vulnerabilities.

"Father, you have to pull your money out," I pleaded. "Bethany is wrong. This is a bubble, and it' s going to burst."

He and Liam, who was now a permanent fixture in our house, just laughed at me.

"Still trying to sabotage your sister, Ava?" Liam sneered. "You can' t stand to see her succeed."

"She' s not succeeding, she' s gambling with other people' s lives!" I shot back.

"Get out," my father said, his voice dangerously low. "I don' t want to see your face."

The crash came three days later. It was brutal and swift. A whistleblower revealed the design flaw in Helios Corp' s technology. The stock plummeted, going from hundreds of dollars a share to pennies in a matter of hours. Fortunes were wiped out. People lost their life savings. The market was in chaos.

The public' s adoration for Bethany turned to rage.

And Bethany, the master manipulator, knew exactly what to do. She went on national television, her face streaked with tears, her voice breaking.

"I don' t understand," she sobbed. "My vision was so clear... but my sister... Ava... she was working on a rival project analysis. She must have leaked false information to undermine me, to make my prophecy fail! It' s all her fault!"

The lie was audacious, insane. And people believed it.

The anger of the ruined investors needed a target, and Bethany had given them one. Me.

That evening, as I was leaving the office building after clearing out my desk, a mob of angry investors cornered me in the parking garage. They were screaming, their faces twisted with hate.

"Liar!"

"You ruined us!"

"Witch!"

Someone threw a rock, hitting me in the shoulder. Pain exploded through me. Another person shoved me, and I fell hard onto the concrete. They closed in, kicking, spitting, their rage a terrifying, physical force. I curled into a ball, trying to protect my head, the rough concrete scraping my skin raw.

This was it. This was how I would die this time. Not by Liam' s hands, but by the mob he and Bethany had created.

Suddenly, the roar of a powerful engine cut through the noise. A sleek, black car screeched to a halt just inches from the mob. The driver' s side door flew open.

Ethan Blackwood stepped out.

He was taller than I remembered, his presence commanding and calm amidst the chaos. He didn' t shout. He didn' t threaten. He just moved through the crowd, his cold, discerning eyes scanning the scene. The mob instinctively parted for him, intimidated by his sheer presence.

He reached me, his expression unreadable, and knelt down. He gently brushed the hair from my face, his gaze taking in my split lip and bruised cheek.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice a low, steady anchor in the storm of chaos.

He helped me to my feet, his arm a solid, protective presence around me. He turned to the stunned crowd, his voice like ice.

"Get out of here. Now."

They scattered like rats.

Ethan guided me to his car, his touch surprisingly gentle. He opened the passenger door and helped me inside before getting in himself.

"Thank you," I whispered, my voice hoarse.

He just nodded, his eyes on the road as he pulled away from the garage. We drove in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"My father wants to see us. Both of us." He glanced at me, his expression serious. "I think it' s time we had a real conversation. I' m tired of all the games."

He steered the car towards the Blackwood estate, away from the Hayes mansion, away from the lies and the betrayal.

"I' ll help you," he said, his voice quiet but firm. "But you have to tell me everything. The real story."

I looked at him, at his steady profile, at the integrity that seemed to radiate from him. For the first time since my rebirth, a tiny flicker of something other than rage and vengeance ignited within me.

It was hope.

"I will," I said, my voice gaining strength. "And I need your help. We need to cancel my father' s arrangement. I will not marry Liam. But I have a counter-proposal for your father."

Ethan raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "And what' s that?"

"I' ll marry you instead."