Chapter 3

I slowly slid the engagement ring off my finger and threw it off the cliff.

"I will make it clear to the media."

He had placed that ring on my finger himself, telling me I could never take it off until our wedding day.

"Melanie, did you hear that? She said it herself!" Tristan yelled.

It felt like my heart had been tossed into boiling oil, then instantly frozen in ice.

Melanie’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly. But suddenly, the wet mud beneath her feet gave way, and she slipped over the edge.

She screamed, grabbing a loose pine branch. Tristan rushed forward to catch her, but his right shoulder had been dislocated during our car crash earlier.

"Tristan, don't let go! I don't want to die! Pull me up!"

Melanie clung to his injured arm. Tristan's face contorted in agony, but he squeezed his eyes shut. "Don't worry, I've got you. Hold on!"

The rain made everything slippery, and their grip was sliding.

I ran forward and grabbed Melanie's other arm. "Hold on! We’ll pull you up!"

With a hard tug, we managed to pull her back onto safe ground.

But just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, a violent force slammed into my chest, shoving me backward.

With a sharp gasp, I lost my balance and tumbled off the cliff.

At the brink of death, my hands instinctively clawed at the wet rocks. Three of my fingernails ripped completely off, exposing raw flesh and mud. The agonizing pain snapped me into absolute clarity.

Tristan hadn't expected me to fall.

"Sera! Hold on! I'm coming down to get you!"

He held onto a thin tree trunk, reaching his hand down to me.

Melanie stood frozen above. "Tristan, don't go down! What if you fall too? Let's just call the rescue team!"

"Sera, don't blame me... I didn't mean to push you."

She stood there watching us, the rain washing over our faces. Tristan’s head throbbed with a sharp pain.

"Sera... grab my hand!"

I looked at Tristan's pale face. Slowly, my bloody fingers slipped from his grip. I didn't have the strength to hold on anymore.

"Tristan, this time, I'm letting go."

Hearing my words, a look of sheer terror flashed in his eyes.

Maybe he finally remembered. He remembered a girl who had once held onto his hand over a suspension bridge, holding on even when her lips were bitten raw and her hands were covered in blood.

That day, Tristan had looked at my bleeding hands and screamed, "Sera, let go! If you don't, you’ll fall with me!"

"I won't!"

That day, his family's enemies had staged a car crash to eliminate him. We had crawled out of the wreckage, nearly falling hundreds of feet into the river below.

"I don't have any warmth or energy left to wait for you to remember anymore."

Even if he got his memory back, he was no longer the Tristan who loved me.

"Sera! Hold on to me!"

"Tristan," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "I really don't want you anymore."

My body felt like it was on fire, scratched and pierced by branches as I fell.

When I finally opened my eyes again, the world was silent and dark. I couldn't hear... and I couldn't see.

Until someone gently placed a brand new hearing aid behind my ear and pulled me into a warm embrace.

The man’s hot chest pressed against my back. He leaned close to my neck, his breath warm. "Sera, you lost the bet."

"Now, will you finally look at me?"

He intertwined his fingers with mine, his cool lips gently pressing against my scarred, battered fingers.

A shiver ran down my spine.

"Do you want me to destroy them for you?" Julian’s voice was dark, devoid of any warmth, yet laced with a dangerous, possessive affection.

"I’ll be your loyal dog, Sera. Only yours."

Fortunately, my blindness was temporary. By the time I filed a lawsuit against Melanie for attempted murder, Arthur arrived at the hospital with Vivian and Melanie in tow.

But they weren’t here to check on my health.

The moment Arthur walked in, he slapped me across the face. "Sera! How dare you sue your own sister? Are you trying to make our family the laughingstock of the city?"

I had long stopped expecting any warmth from him.

"Really? Since when does a sister push her own sister off a cliff?"

I threw my phone onto the bed, playing the video.

In the recording, Melanie hadn't slipped and accidentally pushed me. She had clearly waited for the perfect moment to shove me down.

I had to thank Tristan’s dashcam for recording everything so clearly.

It was just a pity that my vision hadn't fully recovered yet, so I couldn't see their terrified, pale faces.

Melanie’s smug face contorted with fear. "How... how is this possible? I thought I deleted..."

Arthur turned to Melanie in disbelief.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

He quickly slipped back into his role of the stern, righteous father. Melanie, realizing the deleted video had somehow ended up in my hands, lost her mind. She grabbed my phone and smashed it on the floor, screaming hysterically,

"This video is fake! Sera, you’re framing me just because you want to ruin my life!"

Even now, she was still acting. I truly admired her acting skills.

"Whether the video is fake or not, the police forensics team will decide. And by the way, that wasn't the only copy."

"Melanie, I’m giving you one chance to apologize. Once you miss it, you're done."

Vivian knew her daughter well. Realizing Melanie was guilty, she panicked.

She raised her hand and slapped Melanie hard. "Kneel down and apologize to your sister!"

Melanie clutched her bruised cheek, stomping her foot as she fled the room.

"Sera, don't even dream of getting an apology from me!"

By the time Vivian ran out to chase her, Melanie had already vanished.

Vivian turned back to me with a tight, fake smile. "Sera, your sister is just immature. I've already punished her for you."

A light slap on the cheek counted as punishment?

"Oh, is that a punishment? I thought you would punish her the way you used to punish me, Vivian."

When I was six, I tried to save a stray cat Melanie was torturing. In the process, I accidentally stepped on a few of Vivian’s precious roses.

When she found out, she whipped my legs with a thick steel ruler until they were black and blue, leaving me unable to stand. Then, she locked me in a dark, cramped closet for two days without food.

No matter how much I screamed and cried, she never softened.

If a maid hadn't remembered to let me out, I would have died in there.

And now, a single slap was supposed to make us even? How cheap did she think my life was?

"Look at me now. I’m half dead. Do you really think a slap is enough?"

Vivian’s face darkened, but she couldn't snap back. "Then what do you want?"

I tilted my head and smiled. "Well, I haven't decided yet. Actually... I don't really want to forgive her. How about you kneel down in her place, and maybe I’ll think about it?"

As we stood in a tense standoff, Tristan suddenly pushed the door open and walked in.

"Sera, don't push people too far!"