Chapter 1

The System's sudden return after all these years left me dazed for a moment.

I looked at Luke Hauser's expressionless face, then at Peter Costner and Jake Bingham beside him, who were telling the servants to prepare a meal for Piper Costner.

A sharp pain stabbed through my heart.

Back then, they'd told me they had been in a car accident on their way to celebrate my birthday.

I was so worried I nearly lost my mind, and without a second thought, I took a shortcut to get to them.

But I was snatched halfway there, and from that day on, my life became a living hell.

Now they had finally rescued me, only to tell me that it had all been to settle a score on Piper's behalf.

'Leave,' I answered the System silently.

[Confirmed! Countdown: 8 hours. Due to the sudden nature of this event, the host must ensure all three villains are present at the moment of departure.]

Seeing me laugh and cry at the same time, Luke reached up and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. His voice was as gentle as it had always been.

"If you don't want a divorce, we don't have to get one.

"It's just that Piper has been pampered by all of us these past few years. You can't hit her again.

"You can't have children anymore, so Piper says she's willing to put the baby down as yours."

I had once carried Luke's child.

But when I was seven months along, Piper pushed me down the stairs, and I lost the baby.

When I came to, I went after Piper like a madwoman to make her pay.

I'd only managed to slap her once when Luke stopped me.

He locked me up at home. The moment my six weeks of postpartum recovery were over, I was abducted and taken to a small mountain village.

My throat felt stuffed with cotton, and it hurt just to speak. "Because I slapped Piper once, you punished me like this?"

"Yes," Luke said, not bothering to hide it.

"You were too useless to keep your own baby, and then you blamed Piper for it. You have shamed the Hauser name. As long as you behave from now on, I promise I won't send you away again."

My face was wet and cold. Unwilling to let it go, I asked, "You'd already lied to me, so why tell me the truth now?"

Peter sighed, and Jake looked completely unbothered. "You and Piper are half-sisters, after all. You need to remember this lesson so that from now on, you'll protect her the way we do."

Protect her?

I couldn't hold back anymore. I grabbed the tea set off the table and smashed it on the floor.

Then I pushed up my sleeves to bare the horrifying scars on my arms and broke down. "The people you paid tortured me day and night. Even my legs..."

"Enough!" Luke cut me off sharply, the disgust in his eyes impossible to hide. "You even painted on the scars so realistically. Looks like you still haven't learned your lesson."

Peter and Jake looked at me with disappointment too.

Luke roughly yanked me by the arm and threw me into a storage room.

"If you still haven't learned to back down by the time Piper gets back, I'll take you back to the mountains myself."

With that threat, he slammed the door shut.

His words sent me straight into a trauma response. I felt like at any second, someone would throw a chain around me and chase me down to beat me.

My voice rasped as I pounded frantically on the door. "I'll agree to the divorce! I don't want to go back to the mountains!"