All Chapters of 999 Steps to Nowhere: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"The bride got lost, so the groom owes us three drinks."A video appeared in the group chat.The MC stood on stage with a microphone, grinning as he teased Isaac Norwood and Sabrina Montrose."You two are perfectly in sync. That is seven years of friendship for you."The guests enjoyed every second. Isaac wore the black custom suit he had made for the wedding, holding the microphone in one hand, his expression calm and at ease."Sabrina took care of every guest here on Wren's behalf. She will take this one for Wren."Sabrina stood beside him in her bridesmaid dress, head dipped as she raised her glass, looking shy.Relatives and friends who did not know the full picture started flooding the chat."The bridesmaid actually looks great standing next to Mr. Norwood.""The bride is so inconsiderate. Who shows up late to their own wedding?"Then another photo appeared. Isaac was looking down, adjusting Sabrina's veil.It was not an ordinary bridesmaid accessory. It was the bridal

Chapter 2

The moment I pushed open the front door of the hillside villa, the living room was a mess.Sabrina was wearing the gold‑embroidered reception gown my mother had left me. She sat on our bed, happily tearing through the gifts the wedding guests had sent. The emerald bangle my grandmother had left me hung loosely around her wrist.Isaac crouched beside the bed, holding a bandage."I told you to switch to flats during the toasts. You had to push through it, and now look, you've rubbed your skin raw."His voice was soft, almost doting. He pressed the bandage carefully onto Sabrina's heel, where there was nothing more than a faint red mark.When he heard the door, Isaac turned around. He saw me standing barefoot in the doorway, and his eyes dropped to the mud and blood covering the soles of my feet. His brow creased.He turned and pulled out the first aid kit. For a second, I thought he finally felt sorry for me.Instead, he handed it straight to me."So you finally found your way ba

Chapter 3

I walked past Isaac and went straight to the closet.I pulled out a suitcase. I did not pack any of the clothes Isaac had bought me and only took a few simple outfits of my own.Isaac leaned against the doorframe, watching me with a cold smile."Playing the runaway act again? Wren, are you done throwing your tantrum? Sabrina handled all those relatives for you today, and you can't even say thank you. Now you're going to give her attitude?"I ignored him and turned to open the nightstand drawer. It was my backup drawer, where I kept my documents and an old phone.The drawer was empty.My whole body went rigid, and I turned to look at Sabrina.She was sitting on the couch, turning the familiar‑looking phone over in her hands."Why do you have my things? Give it back!" I walked over and held out my hand.Sabrina shrank behind Isaac, looking wounded."Wren, please don't be so harsh. My phone died today, and I saw the spare in the drawer. I just wanted to borrow it to transfer som

Chapter 4

I dragged my suitcase out of the villa.The weather on Avenmore Island could turn without warning. What had been heavy fog earlier was now a sky of dark clouds pressed low by howling wind. A storm warning flashed across my phone.I stood at the curb, about to call a cab to the airport, when something stopped me.Mom's urn was still in the trunk of the bridal car.The original plan had been to head straight from the ceremony to the airport and fly to Vindmark after the wedding. When I had gotten out of the car midway, the driver had taken it back up to the old chapel parking lot at the top of Summit Pass.I flagged down a taxi and told the driver to head for the summit.The wind was getting worse. Rain hammered the windows like gravel. Halfway up the mountain, the driver refused to go any farther."Miss, there's a landslide warning for the area up there. They could close the road any minute. You couldn't pay me enough to drive into that!"I had no choice but to get out and walk

Chapter 5

There was a deafening crash.A massive rock slammed into the ground less than 30 feet from where I crouched. Mud and water sprayed in every direction, and the force of it sent pain tearing through my body.I was curled up in a hollow in the rock wall, arms locked around the urn I had pulled from the bridal car.One second before the landslide swallowed the road, two beams of light cut through the fog.Three heavy‑duty SUVs had ignored the road closure and forced their way past the barricades.The lead vehicle's door was kicked open from the inside. Several broad‑shouldered bodyguards in professional rescue gear charged into the storm."Ms. Covington! Over here!"They closed around me on all sides and wrapped a waterproof jacket over my shoulders.The one leading the team was the head of security for the Covington Group. He took one look at the blood covering my feet and how pale my face was, and his eyes went bloodshot."Your father nearly lost his mind back in Allenford. The

Chapter 6

Within my first week back in Allenford running the group, the news from Avenmore Island came flooding in.Norwood Technologies had collapsed.The 3 billion dollars the Covington family had been funneling in was pulled out overnight. The banks moved immediately, triggering cross‑default clauses and freezing every one of Isaac's designated accounts.Without the financial safety net, the commercial empire Isaac had been so proud of fell apart in a matter of days.What made it almost laughable was that Sabrina had finally shown her true colors.She had grown used to being pampered by Isaac and still assumed Norwood Technologies was the deep‑pocketed company it used to be. While Isaac was scrambling to borrow money from every direction, she had not lifted a finger to help.Instead, she had quietly run up his secondary card on a limited‑edition handbag worth millions.When the debt collectors started calling her phone, she packed up and fled the hillside villa in the middle of the nig

Chapter 7

A month later, one of the industry's top medical summits was held in Allenford.I attended as the representative of the Covington Group, seated in the front row of the VIP section.Isaac was there too. He had sold the last property under his name just to scrape together enough for a seat on the fringes of the venue, hoping to find an investor willing to save his company from bankruptcy.I went on stage to deliver the keynote. The audience erupted in applause, and every eye in the room was on me. I commanded the room with ease. I was no longer the accessory who hid behind Isaac and could not tell one direction from another.When I stepped off the stage, a sharp pain twisted through my stomach. Back on Avenmore Island, I had spent too many nights keeping Isaac company at business dinners, drinking hard liquor until it left lasting damage.I sat down on the couch in the lounge area. Fletcher was beside me immediately with warm milk and a box of prescription‑grade stomach medication.

Chapter 8

The bankruptcy liquidation of Norwood Technologies entered its final stage.Lawyers had seized every property and account under Isaac's name. With nowhere else to turn, he had moved back into the run‑down attic apartment he had rented during his early startup days.On Wednesday afternoon, I brought the asset evaluation team to the site to verify the last of the collateral inventory.When I pushed open the attic door, the air smelled of mold. Isaac was sorting through what little he had left.When he saw me walk in, his dull eyes lit up for a moment before embarrassment replaced it.The appraisers took out their equipment and began cataloging. As a worker shifted an old bookcase, a cardboard box on top lost its balance and fell to the floor.Its contents spilled out. There was a phone with a shattered screen, a black notebook, and a few neatly folded receipts.Isaac walked over and bent down to pick up the receipts. When he read what was written on them, his entire body went stil

Chapter 9

Sabrina was formally sentenced to eight years for commercial fraud.Isaac lost all of his equity and assets. Buried under a mountain of debt he could never repay, he was swept out by the liquidation team with nothing.On an ordinary Friday afternoon, Isaac came to the Covington Group building.He knelt in the rain outside for three full hours, asking for nothing more than to see me one last time.I had Fletcher bring him up to the conference room on the top floor.When Isaac walked in, he was still dripping wet. He pulled a plastic bag from inside his jacket. Inside it was the old phone Sabrina had wiped and smashed. He had held the screen together with tape, piecing it back as best he could."Wren..." He dropped to his knees in front of me and raised the phone above his head."I found one of the best data recovery teams out there. They said if they had enough time, they might be able to salvage a few fragments of the audio..."Please, just let me stay at the Covington Group. I

Chapter 10

Two years passed.The weather on Avenmore Island was still rainy and damp.I had led the Covington Group's medical AI subsidiary through its listing on the stock exchange. The bell‑ringing ceremony was a spectacle.The venue glittered under bright lights, and a wall of cameras pointed at the stage. I wore a sharply tailored black suit, gripped the red handle of the mallet, and struck the brass bell.The deep ring echoed through the trading floor.I stood under the spotlight, looking out at the same faces that had laughed at me during Isaac's wedding.After the ceremony, several familiar figures came forward on their own. Two years ago, they had called me inconsiderate in the wedding group chat. Now they held out their business cards with both hands, opening with, "Ms. Covington, what a pleasure."Over the past two years, I still took a wrong turn now and then, but a fork in the road no longer sent me into a panic. I no longer relied on anyone to guide me. I drove through the str

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