Chapter 2

My soul quaked in the hollow silence, screaming without a sound, 'She deserves this… but what about me? For a year, I let the drug eat my body from the inside. Then, I was buried alive. For two years, I rotted in the dark. What did I endure it all for?'

But Kip couldn't hear me. He was too busy sliding a hand around Jen's waist, bending her backward into a deep, possessive kiss.

When he finally pulled away, he cradled her face, his eyes blazing. "I'm going to give you the wedding of the century. I want the whole world to watch you become my wife."

Jen cast her eyes down in a show of fragile hesitation. "But you… you were supposed to be Sylvia's. People are already talking. If we make it more public, I'm afraid—"

Kip pressed a finger to her lips, his voice dropping to a low, vehement promise. "I want them to talk. I want everyone to know you're the strongest, most selfless woman I've ever met. The only one worthy of standing beside me."

Then he reached into a hidden compartment in our booth—our booth—and pulled out a velvet box. Inside, a diamond the size of a pigeon's egg glinted under the lights.

He dropped to one knee, his gaze a furnace of devotion. "Jen. Marry me."

The vision lanced through my spectral form.

I was thrown back to three years ago, under this same chandelier. The same man, in the same spot, on the same knee.

"Sylvia," he'd said, voice thick with emotion, "you're the only person I have ever wanted to marry."

Now, my ring was buried in the rot of my own corpse, forgotten.

And he was offering a new one to my murderer.

The memories surged—jagged and vivid.

I saw Jen at the gates of the research institute years ago, in worn-out jeans, her eyes red and swimming.

"Sylvia," she'd wept, bowing deeply, "without you, I'd never have been allowed inside a place like this…"

Her thin frame had shook with sobs. "You're like a second mother to me."

I'd laughed, tousling her mousy hair. "Don't be silly. From today, you're my little sister."

Kip had wrapped his arms around me from behind, his chin resting on my head, his laughter vibrating through me. "My Sylvia has the softest heart in the world."

His lips had brushed my ear. "Someone as good as you deserves every beautiful thing life has to offer."

I'd batted him away, flushed and smiling. "Stop it. It was nothing."

I knew the brutal cost of research. I'd lived it. So when I saw the desperate hunger in Jen's eyes, I'd opened my hand without a second thought.

"Come work in my lab."

Back then, she was all deference and awe, handling every file as if it were sacred scripture. I remember her first day in a lab coat, plucking at the stiff fabric, asking in a small voice, "Sylvia… do I even belong here?"

But what followed? She was a creeping vine, slowly, patiently strangling the host tree. My open invitation became her unwavering entitlement.

At my mother's sixtieth birthday party, she'd thrown herself to the floor with a dramatic thud, forehead pressed to the tile.

"Godmother! You are my real mother now!"

My mother had stared, bewildered. I was speechless at the audacity. But when I felt the rough calluses on Jen's palms—a testament to a harder life—my resolve softened.

"Mom," I'd said, "just accept her. What's one more daughter to love?"

Soon, she was calling out to my brother with a sweetness that put my own casual tone to shame.

She lavished attention on Kip—little gifts, trinkets, a clumsily knitted scarf.

My mother would tug my sleeve, whispering, "Jen's intensity… it unsettles me."

My brother would shudder. "She linked arms with me today. Gave me the chills."

Even Kip grew uncomfortable, confessing, "She brings me lunch every day. It's getting hard to politely refuse."

Every time, I made excuses.

"Jen had a difficult childhood. She's just expressing gratitude.

"Don't overthink it. Just be kind."

How stunningly naive I was. What a perfect, tragic fool.

I had built a nest of warmth and opportunity, and the viper I sheltered used it to learn where to strike. She weaponized my own compassion, biding her time until she could steal everything.

My legacy. My family. My love. My life.

And I—

Even my bones are condemned as a traitor's, fit only for the flames of a pauper's pyre.