Chapter: Chapter 109: One Final Plan“Midnight tomorrow is too soon,” I say, pretending to care what happens to Daniel. “Jade is too wicked.”“I'm... I'm going to have to call her,” Daniel says almost immediately, his voice dropping into a tone that makes my stomach turn. “I'll have to beg her, Barb. I'll swallow my pride. I'll get down on my knees if I have to. If I can just get Jade to give me forty-eight hours of grace, the company money will hit my account and I can pay her back cleanly without Zayn ever finding out I lent money from her years ago.”Natasha scoffs, crossing her arms tightly. “You think she'll give you grace after the way she just looked at you? When do you get it into your thick skull that she doesn't care about you? Not even one bit.”“She loved me for years!” Daniel fires back, his voice cracking with delusional hope. “She’s angry, yes, but if she sees me more broken, desperate, crying—she’ll give me the two days I’m asking for. She has to. I’ll make her believe I’m entirely at her mercy.”I watch
Last Updated: 2026-06-10
Chapter: Chapter 108: Every Woman for Herself~BARBARA~“You're a monster,” I choke out, my rehearsed tears spilling over. But this time the dampness on my cheeks is born of true and pure terror of what Jade is capable of. She’s changed. The girl we used to manipulate is completely gone. “You're just like Zayn now. You're a Hemsworth.”Jade pulls her cellphone back, sliding it neatly into her designer bag (I wish the bag belonged to me). She looks at me one last time with an expression of disgust, and a mocking smile curls up the corners of her mouth.“No, Barbara,” she says softly, standing up and walking toward the door with an effortless elegance that makes me want to cry over my pathetic life. “I'm just a woman who finally learned how to protect herself from fake friends like you and Daniel. Thirty thousand dollars. Tomorrow night. Or I hand this picture to the district attorney and make the post online.” “You can't do that,” Natasha manages, her voice shaking. Deep down, she knows terribly well that Jade would, in fact, do
Last Updated: 2026-06-09
Chapter: Chapter 107: No Tears Left To CryJADEI feel the air in the room drop to sub-zero temperatures the moment Daniel sees me. He smiles as if he just won the lottery. I want to slap that smirk off his face but I return his smile with a much wilder one.“Jade…” he whispers, his voice cracking with joy as tears pool in his eyes. “You came. I knew you would come.”I don't move. I just stand there smiling at him, looking down at his heavy cast and his sweat-drenched face. “Please, I need a hug,” he says pleadingly.“Oh, just shut up, Daniel. I'm not really here for you.”His smile vanishes. I step fully into the room. I'm wearing a long, vintage-cut trench coat. The fabric is dark and structural. My long blonde hair is pulled back tightly, exposing the unbothered lines of my face which Daniel immediately notices. There are no tears in my eyes. No despair on my face. His lips upturns and his brows furrow with confusion.“You seem—alright,” he mumbles. “I thought you'd be–”“Crying?” I cut in, standing next to his bed. I smil
Last Updated: 2026-06-08
Chapter: Chapter 106: The Woman He Lost“You think it's a lie,” Zayn says. It isn't a question. “I know it's a lie. Daniel is many things, but he isn't clumsy. And he certainly doesn't care about me enough to refuse medical treatment unless there’s a script he’s trying to follow. This is one of his stupid traps.”“A pathetic one,” Zayn murmurs, his eyes darkening as he stares at the phone before handing it back to me. “A clean break. The lower tibia and the ankle joint, most likely. He’s looking for a payout from the corporate insurance, or a sudden burst of guilt from you to get his hands on your money.”I stiffen, looking at him in shock. “How do you know the exact injury?”“Because I know how desperate rats get when the maze starts shrinking,” Zayn says, his hand reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair behind my ear, his touch is incredibly gentle. “He wants you by his side, Jade. He thinks this accident will make you run back to him. But you know better now, don't you? You know what kind of man he is. He’s not go
Last Updated: 2026-06-07
Chapter: Chapter 105: He’s Dying“I got her new cellphone number from Victoria, but she’s not answering her phone,” Barbara mutters from the corner of the room. She is sitting on the bed, aggressively chewing on a cuticle, her eyes dark with a toxic mix of paranoia and exhaustion while I bleed here on the floor. “Are you sure she’s going to come if she eventually picks up? Zayn might—”“She’ll come,” I cut her off, my voice raspy but entirely certain. I’m in so much pain it’s a miracle that I’m still alive. “Jade can’t help herself. She has a savior complex. When she hears that her first love, her campus sweetheart, is lying in a charity-ward bed with a shattered leg because her billionaire husband worked him into the dirt, her conscience will tear her apart. You know how she is.”“Hmmm! I don't know anymore,” Barbabra whines. She’s convinced herself that Jade has changed. But I’m not convinced yet. I refuse to be. I close my eyes, running through the script I’ve spent the last forty-eight hours perfecting in my min
Last Updated: 2026-06-06
Chapter: Chapter 104: One Last Chance~~DANIEL~~It’s been three days since Damon stopped showing up for work and I’ve been downgraded from consultant to janitor. His phone line is dead. He has left me in this corporate hellhole to be ground into dust by his brother’s invisible boot.“The executive suites on floors forty through fifty-five need a deep chemical steam by morning, Daniel. Personally.”I stare at the supervisor with so much anger within me. If I didn't need this job, I’d quit at the speed of lightning. It is ten in the morning. My eyes feel like they are filled with crushed glass, and my chest burns with every ragged breath I take.“Sir... I’ve already pulled a double shift,” I rasp, my voice cracking from exhaustion. “I’ve been on my feet since six. The manager said I was cleared to go home. I’m a consultant not a janitor.”The supervisor doesn't even look up from his tablet. “Janitors report to the custodial supervisor. You report to me. Management noted that your performance during the Chairman’s Gala was.
Last Updated: 2026-06-05
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