Chapter 1

Prologue

Everyone said I had schemed relentlessly to drive my sister away.

That I shamelessly kept Liam Sterling all to myself for three years.

Everyone cursed me, calling me a slut and a scheming bitch.

Liam knew all of it, but he never bothered to defend me. Not once.

He hated me, humiliated me, and treated me as nothing more than a stand-in for Elena Vance.

And so, I bore the brunt of all the blame and scorn alone for three whole years.

Until a diagnosis of terminal gastric cancer crashed into my life.

And in my womb, I was carrying his child.

Chloe’s POV

Liam Sterling dragged me all the way into the car.

Just half an hour ago, word came that Elena Vance had boarded a flight to the UK.

The moment the news reached the top floor of Sterling Group, Liam threw down the contract he was signing and headed straight for the Secretarial Department. In front of a dozen employees, he dragged me away from my desk.

No one dared to stop him.

Everyone in the company knew just how much Liam pampered Elena.

A single phone call from her, and he would walk out in the middle of a board meeting; if she wanted to see the northern lights, he would charter a private jet just to take her there.

The woman he held in the palm of his hand had just up and left today.

As I was being pulled away, I could already hear people whispering behind my back, saying Elena's departure definitely had something to do with me.

With a heavy slam, the door of the Maybach was shut.

Liam shoved me against the car door, his eyes terrifyingly red.

"Did you think that by driving her away, I'd fall for you?"

My mind went completely blank, but guilt hit me faster than fear.

After all, I had only just found out about Elena leaving.

Last night, Elena stood before me holding my diary and asked, "Chloe, is what's written in here true? Do you love Liam?"

Caught completely off guard, I nodded as if possessed.

If I hadn't admitted it last night, would Elena have stayed?

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..."

A dull thud echoed.

His fist grazed past my ear and slammed hard against the car window behind me.

"You didn't mean to? Then what the hell do you call intentional!"

Terrified, I shrank back further, my back pressing tight against the car door.

Liam stared at my pale face without an ounce of pity. Instead, a cold sneer formed on his lips.

"Elena said you love me very much?"

Hearing those words, the blood in my veins turned to ice.

Elena had actually told him that too?

"I did love you, but what I told her was—"

What I had told her was that I used to love Liam, but that was in the past.

If Elena hadn't stumbled upon my diary, I would have kept this secret locked away for the rest of my life.

I would have let it rot in the bottom of my heart, never telling a soul.

Before I could finish, Liam cut me off.

"So you forced her to leave me!"

"I didn't! I really don't know how things turned out this way..."

I shook my head repeatedly, desperate to explain.

"You don't know?"

Liam leaned in close again, pressing down on me with suffocating fury, leaving me nowhere to retreat.

"You don't know how that diary ended up in front of her?"

"You don't know how she managed to see it?"

"Don't tell me it just so happened to fall right outside her bedroom door by pure coincidence!"

I couldn't explain it myself.

The diary had always been kept locked inside my bedroom drawer, and I kept the key on me at all times.

How it ended up outside Elena's door was something I couldn't fathom, no matter how hard I racked my brain.

To anyone looking from the outside, it would seem completely deliberate.

But it really wasn't me.

Liam pinched my chin, forcing my face up.

"You grew up with her! Don't you know what kind of person she is?"

"The moment she found out that you, the older cousin who yielded everything to her since childhood, was in love with me, do you think I don't know what she'd do? You knew better than anyone!"

"These cheap little tricks of yours might fool her, but you can't fool me!"

I had no defense.

Elena was staying with the Vance family, and out of fear that she might feel alienated, I yielded to her for over a decade.

The toys Elena liked, I gave up; the dresses Elena fancied, I let her have.

I had even surrendered my spot for the overseas exchange program.

Everyone in the Vance family took it for granted that because Elena's parents were dead, I had an obligation to yield to her.

In Liam's eyes, because I always gave in to Elena, she would give him up for me.

Yet I had never once thought about competing with Elena for Liam.

I had simply locked my feelings away in a drawer, watching Elena hold Liam's arm while offering them a smiling congratulations.

"Chloe Vance! What does your love for me have to do with me!"

Liam's furious roar echoed inside the car.

"Listen to me carefully! Even if you used underhanded schemes to drive her away, I, Liam Sterling, will never fall in love with you in this lifetime!"

My face drained of all color.

Even though I had long resolved to let him go, hearing Liam say those words out loud still shattered me. The pain in my chest was unbearable.

I hung my head in agonizing defeat.

Liam, however, had no intention of letting me off the hook.

With his burning fury having nowhere to vent, he ruthlessly ripped open my blouse.

"Don't... please don't do this..."

Terrified, I shrank back frantically, but there was nowhere left to run.

At that moment, Liam stared down at me with bloodshot eyes.

Within seconds, he tore my skirt to shreds and pressed his full weight down on me.