Chapter 4

**Vivian’s POV**

I suddenly laughed, so hard that tears almost came out. "Julian, what makes you think you can still threaten me?"

The study fell into a dead silence.

My eyes, which used to be filled with endless love for him, were now completely dead.

I didn't want him anymore.

My father waved his hand impatiently. "Lock her in the pool house storage room! Don't let her out to embarrass us before Melanie’s engagement party!"

Several bodyguards brutally dragged me away.

As I passed Julian, I stopped, my gaze sweeping over the two men who had pushed me to the edge.

"You both want me to disappear, right? Fine. I’ll give you exactly what you want."

Julian’s heart skipped a beat for some reason. He instinctively called out, "Vivian!"

But the only response he got was the cold *click* of the storage room lock.

The dark storage room had no heating. It was freezing like an ice box.

I pulled out my burner phone, which I had hidden in my sleeve, and dialed my best friend, Chloe.

"Are they insane?! They locked you up like a dog?!" Chloe’s voice was shaking with rage over the line.

I looked out the window at the dark night sky, my voice eerily calm. "Chloe, I’m going to Carmel."

"When?!"

"In three days."

During these three days, I needed to gather all the evidence of Melanie framing me and my mother.

I was leaving, but I wasn't running away with my tail between my legs.

I was going to dump every bit of dirt they threw at me right back onto their faces!

I was locked up for two days.

The Vance family told everyone I was sick and couldn't see anyone.

Julian came once. He looked at me through the barred window, holding a box of medicine.

"Melanie has decided not to press charges."

I was looking through my mother’s old sketchbooks, not bothering to look up.

Julian set the medicine on the window sill. "Your hand needs antibiotics."

I glanced at it. "Thank you, Melanie’s fiancé."

Hearing that, Julian’s face darkened.

He stayed silent for a moment before speaking quietly, "You didn't use to talk to me like this."

"I didn't know who you really were back then."

His breath hitched. "Vivian, I admit some things were handled poorly, but you need to think about why Melanie was sent abroad in the first place. She’s fragile, and she spent two years alone in Paris. You owe her an apology."

I finally looked up. "She applied for that exchange program herself. Her signature is on the application, and the recommendation letter was signed by my father, not me."

Julian froze.

"You can look it up if you don't believe me," I said. "Though, you probably don't want to."

Julian’s brows knitted tightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but his phone rang again.

It was Melanie, crying on the other end, saying her hand hurt and she was scared of scarring.

He looked at me one last time, but in the end, he turned and left.

Chloe snuck in through the back fence at dawn on the third day.

She brought me a maid’s uniform and pressed a small flash drive into my palm. "I found the original backstage footage from the auditorium. The guy who edited it was from the student union, and he’s tight with Melanie. Also, the security guard’s cleaning cart had a dashcam on it when the lounge incident happened. I got that footage too."

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