Chapter 3

Sagewater wasn't a conventional psychiatric hospital.

The Graysons seemed to think sending Micah here and ignoring him would humiliate him into repentance.

Because I had agreed to the placement voluntarily, no one supervised me beyond the ordinary rules of the residential campus.

They were waiting for me to break down, confess everything, and beg to be taken back to Grayson Manor.

They had no idea this place felt like paradise to me.

Over the next few days, I absorbed Micah's memories and occasionally chatted with the System.

"Host, why don't you work a little harder, make them adore you, drain the Grayson fortune, and take me somewhere fun?"

I rejected the System's brilliant plan immediately. "No."

I was not the original Micah. I did not carry all his longing, and I wanted no deeper connection to the Graysons.

If I wanted to stand on my own in this world, I needed to rely on myself.

I reluctantly used the ten thousand dollars I had brought from the estate to buy a secondhand laptop and began taking small programming contracts.

The rest of my time went to delivery work, shop shifts, and any other legal job I could find.

There was nothing shameful about earning money. I would have collected refundable bottles from trash bins if that paid.

While I buried myself in work from morning to night, the Graysons rented the entire Rookspire Estate for Tristan's eighteenth-birthday gala three days later.

Shortly afterward, the flower shop where I worked a part‑time shift sent me out to deliver a bouquet to the estate.

I parked my battered scooter well away from the luxury cars before entering the enormous manor.

From a distance, I saw Tristan dressed like a storybook prince while guests praised him from every direction.

Next to him, I looked like something the caterers had tracked in off the driveway.

I pressed one hand over the strange ache in my chest, forced down the envy and grief that had risen from nowhere, and shook my head.

Maybe the original Micah's lingering consciousness had seen all of this and felt hurt.

Today was Micah's eighteenth birthday too, yet his biological family had not offered him so much as a message.

They saw only Tristan. They loved only Tristan. For Micah, there had always been disgust and mockery.

How could the original Micah not resent that?

Once I had myself under control, I followed Gerald to the place where the bouquet was supposed to go.

It was strange. The estate was already filled with white roses, so why had anyone ordered one useless bouquet from a small neighborhood shop?

I was never going to understand rich people.

Across the room, Tristan glanced in my direction and gave the faintest smile.

I could not tell whether he had actually seen me.

I had no desire to meet any Grayson, so I kept my head down and stayed behind Gerald.

Not long after I left the room, a disturbance broke out among the guests.

Tristan had supposedly gone to change, yet he returned in the same clothes and suddenly began crying in front of everyone.

As people rushed to ask what was wrong, his tears only became worse.

"The watch Ivy gave me is gone, and the formal suit and shoes Vanessa prepared for me have been cut apart.

"I've always tried to get along with everyone. Other than Micah hating me, I don't have enemies here."

Tristan's friend Cole Harrington heard that and punched the wall in fury.

"Micah did it. He's jealous because the Graysons love you."

Tristan staggered back as if horrified by the accusation, his face full of wounded restraint.

"I know I took Micah's place, and I know he hates me. I've tried so hard to make peace, even though he destroys the gifts I give him, steals from me, hits me when Mom and Dad aren't watching, burns me with hot water, and spreads lies about me.

"But does he really hate me enough that he has to humiliate me in front of everyone?"

"Of course he does," Cole snapped, furious on Tristan's behalf. "You're too kind. That's why someone like Micah thinks he can walk all over you."

The guests joined in, condemning me as vicious and contemptible.

Vanessa heard the commotion, abandoned the people she had been entertaining, and rushed over. "What happened? Tristan, why are you crying?"