Chapter 2

I clung to the wall, fingers digging in so hard my nails split, yet I felt nothing.

For eight years, to help him repay that so-called “two-hundred-thousand-dollar debt,” I gave up my guaranteed admission offer.

I washed dishes in the back alley of a hotel in subzero weather, my hands cracked open and bleeding from the cold.

To save money, I lived on plain water and stale bread, until my body gave out.

And now, Clara had only murmured that the place smelled unpleasant, and he had casually bought the entire hospital.

So, his poverty had been an act. His devotion was also an act.

Only my suffering, my blood, and the tumor in my head were real.

I watched as he fed a cherry to Clara with gentle care, while the metallic taste of blood filled my own mouth.

Since fate gave me a chance to live, I wouldn’t die alongside a man like him.

“Landon, your lies would be the stepping stones of my rebirth.”

I had just returned to my room and lay down when the door was pushed open.

Landon walked in wearing that faded, torn T-shirt, his face smeared with dark grime, and the moment he entered, he pressed a crumpled stack of cash into my hand.

“Stella, the foreman paid me sixty dollars today. I’ve saved it all for your surgery.”

I lowered my eyes, looking at the money, but this time, I didn’t feel moved to tears.

Because I could clearly smell the expensive cologne on him.

[Detected male lead’s lie: “The foreman paid sixty dollars.”]

[Lie identified. Reward granted: Brain tumor reduced by one-third.]

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Is your head hurting again?” Landon reached out nervously to touch my forehead.

Before he could finish, the door to the room was suddenly kicked open.

Three heavily tattooed men stormed in. The bald one in the lead strode forward, grabbed me by the hair, and dragged me violently off the bed.

“Landon! You owe us two hundred thousand—ten grand in interest this month alone. Pay up today, or she’s dead!”

“Ah!”

A tearing pain ripped through my scalp, and my whole body trembled uncontrollably.

It was the instinctive fear carved into me after years of beatings from debt collectors.

“Don’t touch her! Come at me!”

Landon lunged forward, eyes red, shielding me beneath him as he took the blows meant for me.

Fists and kicks rained down on his back.

Before, I would have been sobbing, begging them to stop.

But now, despair ran so deep it made my soul shake.

Because in that moment, pinned to the ground, I saw it clearly.

In the bald man’s ear was a communication earpiece bearing the Law Group logo.

And the blows landing on Landon’s back lost their force the moment he gave the slightest, almost imperceptible signal.

So all these years, the so-called loan shark harassment that had kept me up at night, that had tormented me endlessly, had been nothing more than a performance he paid for.

Using the cruelest, most despicable means, he fed my fear, tested my loyalty, until I was nothing more than a dog, utterly devoted to him.

“If you can’t come up with ten thousand by tomorrow, I’ll sell her off!” the bald man snarled before leading his men out.

Landon struggled to his feet, then pulled me into his arms, his face full of guilt.

“Stella, I’m sorry… Do you still have any money? Give them something first to keep them quiet, or they’ll come back tomorrow and hurt you again.”

I forced down the nausea and took out my phone.

“I have one thousand left. I was saving it to buy painkillers.”

Landon’s eyes lit up. He snatched the phone from my hand and, without hesitation, transferred the one thousand to his own account.

“Stella, don’t worry. I’ll pick up a shift in a restaurant kitchen tonight. I’ll find a way to cover your medical bills.”