Chapter 2

Liam' s mansion was a monument to my stolen genius. Every sleek line of the architecture, every piece of cutting-edge smart home technology, every award displayed in a glass case in the grand foyer-it was all built on my back. I hated being here. Every step inside felt like walking on my own grave.

He had summoned me for a "final negotiation," a meeting with his lawyers to sign away my life' s work for a pittance. It was a public execution disguised as a business transaction. The house was filled with people, investors and tech journalists Liam was courting for his next big move. He wanted witnesses to my humiliation.

As I walked through the massive living room, a wave of dizziness washed over me. My breath hitched. I clutched my chest, right over the spot where the Lotus Mark was hidden beneath my shirt. It was a faint, intricate tattoo-like pattern over my heart, the physical manifestation of our seven-life contract. Lately, it had started to burn, a constant, dull ache that grew sharper with every ounce of energy Liam drained from me. The mark was my life-force gauge, and it was blinking red.

Servants who once greeted me with respect now looked away, their faces a mixture of pity and fear. They knew who held the power now. Guests whispered as I passed, their curious glances feeling like physical blows.

"Is that her? Ava?"

"She looks so sick."

"I heard Liam dropped her. Can't blame him, look at her."

I found a quiet, dark hallway to catch my breath, leaning against the cool marble wall. My legs felt weak, my vision blurry at the edges. The constant drain was accelerating. He was pulling more and more from me, his ambition burning hotter than ever as he prepared to launch his new flagship product-a product based entirely on a predictive analytics engine I had designed in a feverish, sleepless haze just months before he left me.

From the hallway, I could see into the main study. The door was slightly ajar. I saw shadows moving inside, heard the low murmur of voices. It was Liam and Chloe. I couldn't help but stop and listen, a moth drawn to the flame that was burning it alive.

Chloe' s voice was a soft, saccharine coo. "Are you sure you have to give her anything, my love? After everything she' s done, trying to hold you back."

Her words were poison, crafted to stoke his arrogance.

Then I heard Liam' s laugh. It was a sound I once thought was full of joy, but now I recognized its cold, empty cruelty.

"It' s a formality, my sweet," he said. "A few million to make her go away quietly. It' s nothing. Once she' s gone, once her... negativity... is out of the company, we' ll be unstoppable. The legacy I build with our son will be eternal."

He was so sure. So utterly convinced that he was the sun and I was just a shadow he was about to step out of.

Chloe giggled. "Our son. I love the sound of that. He' ll be a genius, just like his father."

A wave of nausea hit me, and it had nothing to do with my illness. It was disgust, pure and undiluted. My head swam with the injustice of it all. He was promising their unborn child a future built on my past, present, and future suffering.

Then his voice dropped, turning serious, almost possessive. "When Ava is gone, truly gone, all of her energy will finally be mine. The last vestiges of the contract will settle. I will become what I was always destined to be."

He felt it. He didn't understand it, not the way I did, but he felt the parasitic connection. He mistook the master-servant contract for a bond of destiny, with him as the chosen one. He thought my death was the key to his ascension.

He had no idea how right he was, and how wrong.

My death wouldn' t complete his power. It would sever it. And his attempt to push me out, to marry another while our contract was still active, was the ultimate violation. The one thing that gave me the power to dissolve it all.

I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling the burn of the Lotus Mark. A strange mix of emotions flooded me. The contract forced a reaction of pain and despair. I could feel tears welling in my eyes, a physical response to his betrayal that was hardwired into our bond. My body mourned the connection he was severing.

But beneath that forced sorrow, a different feeling was taking root. A wild, fierce joy. He was doing it. He was actually, finally, setting me free. His cruelty was my salvation.

He thought he was casting me into the abyss.

He didn't realize he was just handing me the keys to the entire kingdom.