Chapter 3

Marcus strode in with his personal assistant. When he saw Martha pinned down, his face went dark.

"Cecilia, who said you could touch my people?" he barked.

Right in front of him, I lashed Martha again.

Martha screamed for help. "Don, save me!"

Marcus stepped in front of her and reached for the whip.

"Let go," he ordered coldly.

I looked at him. "Cecilia's missing, and instead of looking for her, you're throwing an engagement party?"

Impatience flashed across Marcus's face.

"What game are you playing now?" he snapped. "Three days ago, you hurt a guard and escaped from the basement. Now you've come back on your own and you're pretending you went missing to get my sympathy?"

So he still hadn't figured out that the woman standing in front of him wasn't my sister.

My sister and I had identical faces, but our personalities were completely different.

He swore he loved her, yet he couldn't even tell when someone else was standing in her place.

When I didn't answer, Marcus assumed I felt guilty.

He softened his tone. "As long as you go back down to the basement like a good girl and stop giving Isabella trouble, I'll pretend this never happened."

I smiled. "She took my place, and you're warning me?"

Marcus's face hardened.

"Isabella never took anything from you!" he snapped. "She saved my life, and she was carrying my child. You were jealous of her, you vicious bitch, so you pushed her down the stairs and made her lose the baby!"

The moment he finished, a sharp pain shot through my right arm.

Like a red-hot iron nail being driven inch by inch into the bone.

Last night it had been my legs. Today it was my right arm.

My sister and I felt each other's pain.

My sister was still alive, and someone was hurting her right now.

I looked down the hallway.

The pain had only grown sharper since I'd set foot in this house.

She had to be here.

Marcus noticed and sneered. "Putting on another show? Slitting your wrists to threaten me wasn't enough, so now you're pulling this?"

I slowly turned to look at him. "Cecilia tried to kill herself over you?"

Marcus was about to answer when the click of high heels came from the hall.

"Marcus, stop."

Isabella swept in wearing a custom white gown, surrounded by a crowd of socialites.

On her head was the diamond tiara worth millions that had been made for my sister's engagement.

When Isabella saw me, panic crossed her face, then quickly turned into hurt.

Her voice caught. "Cecilia, I know you blame me. But you can't force love. Marcus and I truly love each other!"

I held her gaze. "The injury on her right arm. Did you do that?"

Isabella's expression changed.

Her eyes reddened. "Cecilia, I don't understand what you mean," she whimpered.

She came two steps closer, deliberately showing off the diamond bracelet on her wrist.

It was one of the twin bracelets our grandmother had made for my sister and me when we were born.

I held out my hand. "Take off the bracelet."

Isabella hid behind Marcus, playing the victim.

"Aunt Helen gave it to me. She felt bad about everything I went through out there. She said half of the Payne family's fortune should have been mine anyway."

I laughed. "What, so you want half of Cecilia's fiancé too?"

Isabella stayed behind Marcus and sobbed, "Killing my baby wasn't enough? Now you want to take the bracelet Aunt Helen gave me?"

Marcus wrapped his arms around her protectively and snarled, "Cecilia, touch one hair on Isabella's head and I'll cut your hands off!"

Emboldened, Isabella turned to the bodyguards beside her. "This crazy woman attacked me. Slap her 20 times! Then strip her and make her kneel outside the hall so every guest can see what a piece of trash she is!"

Two bodyguards immediately stepped forward and grabbed my shoulders.

Isabella walked up to me and raised her hand to slap me.

I only glared at her. When Isabella saw I wasn't fighting back, she finally looked pleased with herself.

She leaned in close to my ear and taunted me in a low voice. "Cecilia, your sister's probably been dead overseas for ages. Even your parents are falling over themselves to please me now. Who do you think is coming to save you?"

I slowly turned my face toward her.

"You never shut up, do you?"

Isabella blinked.

I slammed my forehead into the bridge of her nose, grabbed her wrist, and pinned the diamond bracelet to the wooden table beside us.

She thrashed, and her wrist split open. Blood dripped down the table.

I kicked away the two bodyguards holding me, then grabbed Isabella by her long hair and shoved her head into the ice bucket on the bar.

"You love taking my sister's things that much?"

I jammed the diamond tiara down on her head and pressed hard.

"Then wear it."

I stepped on the hem of her gown and forced her to kneel on the broken glass, still wearing the tiara.

"If it falls off, I'm pulling out one of your fingernails with pliers."

Isabella cried out to Marcus for help.

I stamped on Marcus's hand and ground his palm back and forth across the broken glass.

"Don't be in such a hurry."

I smiled at them.

"Neither of you lowlifes is walking out that door today."

Suddenly, a furious shout came from outside the hall. "Stop right there! Get your hands off Isabella!"