Chapter 1

Damian Vance loved punishing me.

Like that time I accidentally brushed against his precious Chloe's designer jacket.

In return, he forced me to watch as the private hospital cut off my little sister’s life-saving treatment.

I dropped to my knees in the sterile hospital corridor, slamming my forehead against the freezing floor until I was bleeding and bruised, begging for an ounce of mercy from him and Chloe.

"It was just pausing her funding for a few days to teach her a lesson for ruining my jacket," Chloe had scoffed, twirling her hair. "She’s not going to drop dead. Why is she being so dramatic?"

When Lily finally drew her last breath, the last piece of my heart died with her. I packed my life away and told him we were over.

That was the moment he completely lost his mind, begging me to stay.

God never listened to my prayers.

Lily was dead.

When I stepped back into the penthouse from the hospital, Chloe was flushed, perched on Damian's lap while his fingers gently massaged her bare calf.

Her cheeks were flushed a deep, unnatural crimson.

Part of it was embarrassment, sure. But mostly, it was pure ecstasy.

Seeing me in the doorway, Damian stopped his hands, his brows furrowing in disgust. "Where the hell have you been? You look like someone just died."

Damian Vance was brilliant as always. He managed to hit the nail right on the head.

Before I could open my mouth, Chloe leaned into Damian’s ear, her voice trembling with breathless intimacy.

"Damian... my legs are so weak. I can barely stand."

Damian’s gaze had been locked onto my face—pale as a ghost, utterly drained of life—but a single whisper from Chloe dragged his attention straight back to her.

Sensing her advantage, Chloe kept her voice sweet and dripping with honey, like nails on a chalkboard:

"Harper won't be mad, will she? Damian and I just got back from the beach house, and my legs are completely sore. I'm just borrowing your couch for a little while."

Was it the couch she was enjoying, or Damian?

I dug deep to keep my breathing steady, ignoring how she subtly shifted her hips against him.

And Damian’s unmistakable reaction.

So that was it. While Lily was flatlining, the endless ringing calls that kept getting clicked to voicemail were because he was tangled up in bed with Chloe.

About a week ago, I had returned from the clinic and saw a woman’s coat tossed carelessly over the living room sofa.

Assuming I had left it there in my morning rush, I reached down to move it.

The very next second, Chloe stepped out of my bedroom wearing my silk pajama set, shrieking as if I were holding a knife to her throat.

"Oh my god! That coat is haute couture! Don't ruin it with your dirty hands!"

I couldn't help the venom in my voice. "Funny, considering you seem to love wearing other people’s things. That pajama set you're wearing wasn't cheap either."

Chloe’s expression turned venomous in an instant.

The retribution came swiftly.

When I woke up the next morning, the penthouse was deserted. Minutes later, the hospital called. Damian had pulled the plug on Lily’s experimental trial and ordered the doctors to halt all specialized care.

The private medical center was heavily funded by Damian. It had the most advanced life-support technology and world-class specialists, but they only took orders from him.

I raced to the hospital in hysterics, only to find Lily writhing in agony, crying out for pain relief they refused to administer.

I grabbed the coat of every doctor who walked past her door. I fell to my knees, slamming my forehead against the cold tile, begging them to save my baby sister.

Not a single soul stopped.

I knew Damian was the only one who held her life in his hands.

Collapsed on the hallway floor, I dialed his number over and over again with trembling hands. Every single call went straight to voicemail.

Three days later, Lily was gone.

While I was drowning in the darkest agony of my life, he was enjoying a romantic coastal getaway with Chloe, ignoring my very existence.

Ever since Chloe returned from Europe, she had practically moved into our penthouse under the excuse that her luxury condo wasn’t ready yet.

I had endured watching her flirt with my man right in front of me. I had endured her treating me like her personal maid in my own home.

I had even swallowed Damian letting her humiliate and degrade me, forgiving him every single time he abandoned me for her.

But this time, I could never forgive him. He had signed my sister's death warrant just because Chloe pouted over a piece of clothing.

He knew! He knew damn well that if Lily’s treatment stopped, she would die. And yet he still did it.

All because I touched his golden girl’s jacket and ruined her mood.

"Go draw a bath for Chloe," Damian said without even glancing up, his voice effortlessly commanding.

There were only three people in this room. Who the hell did he think he was ordering around?

I dug my nails into my palms until the skin broke, desperate to anchor myself.

"Damian, we’re done. I'm leaving you."

"From this second on, we are strangers. And I don't owe you a single thing anymore."