Chapter 1

The leather seats of the Rolls-Royce were cold against Scarlett Hayes' s bare skin. Outside, the city lights blurred into long streaks of color as the car moved silently through the night. Ethan Vance' s hand was on her thigh, his touch confident and possessive. He didn't speak, he rarely did during these moments. Theirs was a language of touch, of intense, stolen encounters in the backseats of luxury cars and the hushed corners of VIP lounges.

Scarlett was a famous fashion designer, known for her sharp, edgy style and a tongue that was just as sharp. Ethan was a tech billionaire, a genius the world admired for his austere brilliance and quiet philanthropy. To the public, they were polar opposites. In private, they were a secret, a scorching affair that felt both thrilling and dangerous.

Tonight, the intensity had been different, almost desperate. When it was over, Scarlett didn't feel the usual rush of adrenaline. She just felt a deep, unsettling emptiness.

They arrived at his penthouse, a sleek glass box overlooking the city. She followed him inside, the silence of the large space pressing in on her. She went straight to his bedroom, the sheets still cool and untouched. Lying in his bed, the scent of him all around her, Scarlett picked up her phone. Her fingers trembled slightly as she dialed a number she hadn't called in months.

Her father, a disgraced former senator, answered on the second ring. His voice was laced with a hopeful anxiety she knew all too well.

"Scarlett?"

"I'll do it," she said, her own voice sounding foreign and flat. "I'll agree to this arranged marriage with the Sterling heir in the South. The sick one."

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end. "Scarlett, that's wonderful news! This will solve everything. The Sterling family's media empire, their influence... it's the bailout we need."

"But I have one condition," she cut in, her voice hardening. She stared at the ceiling, a vast, empty white space.

"Anything, my dear. Anything you want." His eagerness was pathetic.

Her condition was simple, a final, futile grab for some semblance of control, but he agreed without a second thought. He was desperate. After she hung up, a wave of nausea washed over her. She was selling herself to save the family that had broken her, all to escape a cycle of manipulation she seemed destined to repeat.

Just as she was about to get up, a soft glow from Ethan's laptop on the nightstand caught her eye. It was left open, a chat window active. A message had just come in.

From "Willow."

"Ethan, the storm scares me..."

Scarlett' s blood ran cold. Willow. The name was a bitter taste in her mouth. She knew exactly who that was. Her stepmother' s daughter. Her fragile, sickly stepsister.

The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Ethan and Willow? The thought was so absurd, so impossible, that she almost laughed. But the message was there, glowing with an intimacy that felt like a physical blow.

Her phone buzzed. It was Ethan. "I have to step out for a bit. An emergency. Stay here."

The line went dead before she could respond. A cold dread, sharp and clear, replaced the emptiness inside her. She got dressed in a haze, pulling on her clothes with numb fingers. She had to know. She had to see.

She used a ride-sharing app and tracked his car's location, a feature he' d insisted on for her "safety." It led her across town to a high-end hotel, the kind known for its discretion. She slipped out of her car and hid in the shadows of the entrance, her heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs.

A few minutes later, Ethan' s car pulled up. He got out, his face etched with a concern she had never seen directed at her. He opened the back door, and what she saw next shattered her world into a million pieces.

He was carrying Willow Hayes, lifting her out of the car as if she were made of glass. He held her tenderly, his arms wrapped securely around her frail body. Willow' s head rested on his shoulder, her face pale and her eyes closed. He carried her into the hotel, his movements gentle and protective.

The revelation hit Scarlett with the force of a physical impact. Willow wasn't just some random girl. She was Ethan's long-lost sweetheart, the one from his past he never spoke of. And she was Scarlett' s stepsister. The two separate, painful parts of her life had just collided in the most devastating way possible.

A storm of rage, betrayal, and a deep, aching hurt swirled inside her. Her father' s manipulative schemes, her stepfamily' s cloying presence, and now this. Ethan, the one person she thought was hers, was a part of their world, too. He was a liar.

In that moment, something inside her broke. The arranged marriage was no longer just an escape. It was a weapon. It was her revenge. She would use her father's desperation, drain him of the money he valued more than his own daughter, and she would get away from all of them.

She took out her phone, her hands steady now with a newfound, chilling purpose. She called her father back.

"The wedding," she said, her voice cold and clear. "I want it to be extravagant. I'll be sending you the bills for my attire. Don't question them."

She hung up before he could answer. He would pay. They would all pay. Homeless and penniless? That was a future she could deal with. But first, she would burn down the world they had built on her pain.

Ethan found her two days later, sitting on a park bench, her expensive suitcase beside her. Her father had cut off her credit cards after the first twenty-four hours of her vengeful shopping spree. She was wearing a couture gown she'd "bought" for the wedding, now wrinkled and dirty. She was officially homeless and broke.

He pulled up in his sleek black car, his face unreadable. He got out and stood in front of her.

"What is this, Scarlett? Another tantrum?" he asked, his voice laced with a familiar, detached annoyance. He mistook her rock-bottom despair for a childish fit.

He offered her refuge, a place to stay. She looked at his handsome, deceptive face and felt nothing but ice in her veins. She let him take her back to his penthouse, the scene of their secret affair, now a monument to his lies.

The welcome-home party for Willow was a week later. Ethan insisted she attend. At the party, Scarlett confronted Willow, who smiled her sweet, sickly smile.

"Scarlett, it's so good to see you," Willow said, her voice soft. She subtly touched Ethan's arm. "Ethan and I go way back. He's always been my protector."

Scarlett watched them together, her heart aching with a pain so intense it was physical. She saw the undeniable tenderness in Ethan's eyes when he looked at Willow, a softness he never showed her.

During a party game, a stupid, drunken truth-or-dare, the host asked Ethan to choose who he'd save from a deserted island. He chose Willow without hesitation. The crowd laughed. The game continued. Who has the kindest heart? Willow. Who would you trust with your life? Willow.

The final question was a cruel twist of fate. "Who do you love more?"

Ethan looked from a triumphant Willow to a stone-faced Scarlett. His silence was the answer. It was a public humiliation, a final, brutal confirmation of her place in his life. She was nothing.

Scarlett snapped. She lunged at Willow, her hands finding their way around her fragile neck. The party erupted in screams. Ethan pulled her off, his face a mask of cold fury. He chose Willow, just as he always would. He had Scarlett detained by his security, briefly held in a back room like a common criminal.

While she was locked away, waiting for the humiliation to end, Willow appeared in the doorway. The sickly, fragile mask was gone. Her eyes were hard and cold with victory.

"He was never yours," Willow hissed. "This whole affair? It was my idea. I needed him to keep you in line, to gather some insurance. He was supposed to tame you for me."

She smiled, a cruel, sharp smile. "He even installed cameras, Scarlett. In the bedroom, the living room. He recorded everything. All for me."

The world went silent. The betrayal was so complete, so monstrous, it was almost incomprehensible. Devastated, Scarlett was eventually released. She didn't cry. She didn't scream. She walked out of the party, took a cab to Ethan's penthouse, and systematically destroyed it. She smashed everything he owned, but it wasn't enough.

She found a lighter in his drawer. She stood in the middle of his lavish living room, the one with the panoramic view of the city, and set fire to the curtains. She watched the flames lick up the expensive fabric, a beautiful, destructive orange against the night sky. She severed all ties, burning everything to the ground.

She moved to the South for the arranged marriage, a ghost of her former self. But the "ailing" groom she was promised was not what she expected. Liam Sterling was a charming, healthy young man who looked at her not as a business deal, but as a long-lost dream. He confessed that he had adored her for years, orchestrating the entire "arranged marriage" as a desperate, elaborate ruse to finally meet her.

Meanwhile, Ethan, discovering the full extent of Willow's manipulations and finally realizing the depth of his own feelings for Scarlett, began a desperate campaign to win her back. He found and bought back her mother's antique necklace, the one Willow had spitefully claimed to have destroyed. He confronted Willow, exposing her deceit to the world and ruining her reputation. He confronted Scarlett's father, destroying his assets and forcing him to disown Willow and her mother.

He crashed Scarlett and Liam's engagement party, a wild, desperate man, publicly declaring his love for her.

But it was too late. Scarlett, having found genuine affection and a quiet peace with Liam, rejected him. She had a new life, a real one, and he was a ghost from a past she had already burned away.

On the eve of her wedding, in a final, mad act of possession, Ethan kidnapped her. He took her to a secluded private island, a gilded cage where he tried to rekindle their past with lavish gifts and desperate affection. Scarlett feigned compliance, her mind cold and clear, secretly planning her escape.

She managed to get a message to Liam. He came for her. During their escape along a treacherous cliffside path, the ground gave way. As rocks and earth tumbled towards them, Ethan, in a single, selfless act, threw himself in front of them. He saved them.

The last thing Scarlett saw before everything went black was Ethan, lying broken at the bottom of the cliff.

He was left paralyzed, watching from a distance as Scarlett married Liam, the man who cherished her. Scarlett, reflecting on her tumultuous journey, realized she had finally found what she had been searching for all along: a true family, a real home.

And Ethan, left alone with his regrets, could only cling to the memory of the woman he had loved, manipulated, and lost forever because of his own devastating actions.