Chapter 1

The crystal glass in my hand felt cold, a sharp contrast to the stuffy, overheated ballroom. Hundreds of people, all dressed in expensive clothes, laughed and talked around me, their voices a low hum under the music. I stood near a pillar, trying to make myself small, trying to disappear.

Then I saw her moving through the crowd. Scarlett Hayes. The daughter of the city's richest family. She moved like she owned the world, and in this room, she did. Her eyes found me, and a slow, cruel smile spread across her perfect face. She walked directly toward me, and the crowd parted for her.

"Ethan," she said, her voice loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. "I was just telling my friends about you."

I felt my stomach clench. I just nodded, not trusting my voice.

"I was telling them how generous my family has been," she continued, her smile widening. She stopped right in front of me, looking me up and down. "We've invested so much in you. Your education, your... family expenses. It's quite a lot of money, isn't it?"

People turned to look. Their whispers started, quiet at first, then growing louder. I could feel their eyes on me, judging me. My face burned with shame.

"I... I'm grateful," I managed to say, my voice tight.

"Good," she said, leaning in closer. "Because it's time to collect a little interest. I need you to go get my grandfather's coat. He's feeling a chill." Her tone was light, but her eyes were hard. It wasn't a request. It was an order, meant to humiliate me in front of all these powerful people. She was making it clear what I was to her: a servant.

I looked at her, my whole body tense with anger and helplessness. But I just said, "Of course, Scarlett."

I turned and walked away, feeling the weight of every stare on my back.

This wasn't how my life was supposed to be. Just a year ago, I was the top student in my medical program. I had a future. I had respect. Then my mother got sick. The rare disease she had required treatments that cost more than I could ever make in a lifetime. The bills piled up, each one a crushing weight. I was desperate, working three jobs and still falling behind. I was on the verge of dropping out of school, of losing everything.

That's when Scarlett Hayes entered my life. Her grandfather, the stern patriarch of the Hayes family, had arranged our first meeting. He saw me as a stable, respectable young man, someone who could be a good influence on his wild, uncontrollable granddaughter. He offered to cover all of my mother's medical bills and fund my education. The price was simple: I had to be Scarlett's fiancé. I had to be available to her, to do what she wanted, to be her perfect, presentable partner.

I thought I could handle it. I told myself it was just a transaction, a deal I had to make to save my mother's life. I didn't know the truth. I didn't know about her obsession with her step-brother, Liam Hayes. I didn't know that I was just a substitute, a stand-in she could mold and control because the real Liam wanted nothing to do with her.

The abuse started small. Criticisms about my clothes, my manners. Demands that I change my hairstyle to look more like him. Then it got worse. She would force me to answer to his name in private, punishing me if I refused. The public humiliation, like tonight, was her favorite game. She enjoyed showing everyone that the brilliant medical student was nothing more than her property.

I made it to the cloakroom, my hands shaking. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. I thought about my mother, lying in her hospital bed. Her smile, even when she was in pain. She was the only reason I endured this. For her, I would do anything. I would swallow my pride, my dignity, my own identity. I would be Scarlett's puppet if it meant my mother could have one more day, one more chance to get better.

I found her grandfather's coat and walked back to the ballroom. As I handed it to Scarlett, her phone buzzed. She glanced at it, and her face twisted with fury. It was a picture of Liam with another woman at a different party across town. Her obsession always trumped everything else.

She turned that anger on me. "This is your fault," she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "If you were more like him, he wouldn't be looking at other people!"

Before I could even process her twisted logic, my own phone rang. It was the hospital.

"Mr. Miller?" a nurse's voice said, sounding urgent. "You need to come now. It's your mother."

A cold dread washed over me, colder than any humiliation Scarlett could inflict. I dropped the coat and ran, pushing past the shocked faces of the wealthy guests. I didn't say a word to Scarlett. I just ran.

By the time I reached the hospital, it was too late. My mother was gone. The doctor, a kind man who had tried so hard, looked at me with pity in his eyes.

"I don't understand," I said, my voice breaking. "The new medication was working. You said it was working."

He hesitated. "The shipment was delayed, Ethan. And the payment for the emergency reserve... it was canceled this afternoon. We did everything we could, but we lost her."

Canceled. The word echoed in my empty mind. The payment was canceled this afternoon. At the exact moment Scarlett was planning her party, at the exact moment she was deciding how to humiliate me next. She had done this. She had let my mother die. Maybe she had even made sure of it. Her little game, her petty revenge for Liam's photograph, had cost my mother her life.

The grief was a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs. But underneath it, something else was slowly forming. A cold, hard certainty. The deal was broken. The reason for my sacrifice was gone. I had nothing left to protect, and nothing left to lose.

In my despair, a strange calm settled over me. I knew what I had to do.

I walked out of the hospital, leaving the scent of antiseptic and death behind me. I didn't go home. I took a taxi straight back to the Hayes mansion. The party was over, but the lights were still on. I walked past the servants, straight into the grand living room where Scarlett was sitting alone, swirling a drink in her hand.

She looked up, annoyed. "What do you want? I told you to get out."

I didn't answer. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the key to the apartment she rented for me. I set it on the polished marble table between us. Then I took out the platinum credit card she had given me for "expenses." I placed it next to the key.

"My mother is dead," I said, my voice flat, devoid of all emotion.

For a second, a flicker of shock crossed her face, but it was quickly replaced by irritation. "Well, that's not my problem."

"No," I said, looking her directly in the eye for the first time without fear. "It's not. Not anymore."

I turned around and walked out of the mansion, not looking back. I was leaving my life as her puppet behind. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have any money. I didn't have a future. But as I walked out into the cold night air, for the first time in a year, I felt like I could breathe again.