Chapter 3

I knelt down.

Both knees slammed hard onto the cold marble floor, into the scattered shards of glass.

Excruciating pain spread from my knees through my whole body, but I couldn't feel it.

"I'm sorry."

I said those three words clearly, to Olive.

Olive laughed in triumph and nudged my shoulder with the tip of her shoe.

"Louder. Didn't you eat?"

Alden's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and a flicker of pain he didn't even notice himself crossed his eyes.

He reached out a hand, as if to help me up.

But a split second before he touched me, I braced myself against the floor and stood up on my own.

Through the whole thing, I didn't look at him once.

I avoided his hand, and I avoided that complicated look in his eyes.

I walked straight to the iron cage, unlocked it, lifted the barely breathing Kerry into my arms, and walked out of that lavish prison without looking back.

Behind me came Alden's icy voice.

"Naomi, you'd better think this through. Once you step out that door, don't imagine you can ever come back without my permission."

I didn't stop.

The next day, I was publicly executed across the entire internet.

A video went viral on all the major local social platforms.

In the video, I looked like a lunatic, screaming inside a little cabin deep in the mountains, chased by three vicious dogs, scrambling and crawling, an absolute mess.

The camera angles were viciously chosen, paired with maliciously edited slow motion and close-ups of my face.

The video's title was: Shocking! Scheming woman fakes depression for sympathy, provokes the underground dog king for fame, gets taught a lesson!

The comments section was unbearable.

"Dying, this acting is more over the top than the scam lady downstairs from me."

"Is depression her death-exemption card? She's gone insane wanting to be famous!"

"Serves her right! Team dog king, people like her need to be taught a lesson!"

Soon, all my personal information was dug up and laid bare.

My workplace, my home address, even photos of the old house my mother left me before she died, the one I could never bring myself to sell.

My phone blew up, nonstop texts of insults and curses.

My workplace sent a termination email right away, citing "personal conduct issues that seriously damage the company's image."

When I got to the old house my mother had left behind, I found the doorway splashed with red paint, crooked lettering scrawled across it: Get out of Ashford City, you bitch.

Just as I stood in the middle of the wreckage, cold all over, Alden's video call came through.

On the screen, he sat in an upscale Western restaurant, unhurriedly slicing the premium Wagyu beef in front of him.

"Learned your lesson yet?"

He swirled the red wine in his glass, his eyes full of the arrogance of someone in complete control.

"Now you see how dangerous the world out there is?"

"Just post a video now, admit that you had a depressive episode that day, that you were talking nonsense, that you were joking around with everyone."

"I guarantee, within five minutes, every piece of negative news about you online will disappear."

"I can even take you to the best sanatorium abroad. We can start over."

Looking at his handsome, arrogant face on the screen, my heart went dead silent.

He wasn't saving me at all.

He was enjoying it.

Breaking my spine, clipping my wings, then watching me crawl and struggle in the mud until I had no choice but to beg him for survival.

What he wanted was a doll he could control.

I lowered my eyes, hiding every emotion in them, my voice carrying just the right amount of submission and exhaustion.

"Okay."

"I'll go live tonight and apologize publicly."

Alden smiled, satisfied.

"That's my good girl, Nomi. You've finally learned to behave."

After the call ended, five years of love and struggle burned away completely, leaving only a near-cruel clarity.

I took Kerry straight to the best pet ICU in the city.

Only after I watched the doctor finish the surgery and wheel him out of the operating room did the weight on my chest ease by half.

Then I turned around and walked into an unremarkable internet cafe on the street corner.

Passing through the smoke-filled hall, in the innermost private room I met the legendary head of the largest underground hacker league in Ashford City.

A man in gold-rimmed glasses who looked refined and gentle.

I pushed a bank card across to him.

"I want to buy one night of your computing power."

"If we're going to do a livestream, let's do one that makes headlines across the whole country."

"A large-scale piece of performance art that exposes the true face of human nature."