Chapter 3

I don't know how much time passed before the darkness lifted.

Just as I was excitedly sitting up, thinking I'd find Mother, someone slapped me so hard I hit the floor.

"You bitch! All we did was have you wash glasses and carry plates at the bar, and the second you see Liam, you pull this stunt! Do you know he almost drowned trying to save you?!"

My third father Julian's voice came from above me. His face was ashen.

Behind him stood Julian, hands in his pockets, watching me like I was some incomprehensible stranger.

Of the four fathers, I'd been closest with my third father.

The others were always busy, so the daily task of raising and educating me had fallen to him.

He taught me to read and write. Taught me chemistry. Taught me to identify plants and compounds.

He was the gentlest of them all. No matter how badly I messed up, he was patient. Never once punished me.

But my third father — who never even raised his voice around me — hit me the very first day Bianca arrived.

That day, Bianca had touched Julian's lab chemicals on her own. She insisted I'd put them on her.

My third father took a belt and whipped me with it.

"Iris, I failed you as a teacher. That's why you turned out this reckless — toying with people's lives."

Later, when Bianca was poisoned again, my third father force-fed me an allergenic compound, then threw me into his university lab's hazardous materials room.

Countless particles detonated inside my body. Even though Julian treated me afterward, I still lost all sensation in one leg.

Seeing that I wasn't speaking, my third father assumed I was conceding guilt. His anger deepened.

He raised his hand to hit me again.

But my fourth father caught his wrist just in time. "Julian, calm down. Today Bianca is being formally designated as Sterling heir — of course she can't handle it. She's already tried to kill herself three times in front of me."

*Tried to kill herself.*

They thought I was suicidal.

What they didn't know was that every time they "saved" me, they were trapping me deeper.

I glanced at my fourth father.

He'd changed clothes. His wounds were bandaged.

But his face was paper-white.

I remembered what my third father had just said.

So it really was him who'd saved me.

But my fourth father couldn't swim. I couldn't imagine how much it had cost him to pull me out of that water.

My third father scoffed. "Liam, she played you. You've been away the past four years — she's pulled this act on us more times than I can count. It's just to get attention."

My fourth father blinked, then exhaled a few seconds later as if relieved. "So that's all it is."

Nolan pushed his glasses up and chimed in: "She's always been like this. Last time she stood at the edge of the rooftop in the school's main plaza, she had everyone fooled — students even filmed it and it went viral. Next day she was perfectly fine."

His tone was flat. As if he were describing the weather.

My third father turned back to me. "Iris, today is Bianca's birthday. You can throw your tantrum in front of the two of us, but don't you dare make a scene in front of Ethan and Marcus. You know how those two are—"

Before he could finish, I was already lunging for the medicine cabinet behind him.

I'd lived at my third father's place long enough to know exactly where he kept the dangerous drugs.

I opened the cabinet, found the most toxic bottle inside.

Took out the most lethal pill.

Swallowed it without hesitation.

My third father's face went white.