Chapter 3

I let out a heart-wrenching scream, tears streaming uncontrollably.

In my moment of despair, the bathroom door was suddenly kicked open.

Zoran had arrived.

He knocked out the two men pinning me down with two swift punches, seething with rage.

"Who ordered you to do this?!"

The two men trembled in fear, "It... it was Miss Carlisle..."

"Get out!"

The men scrambled away, terrified.

I was in a daze as Zoran took me home.

When he gently laid me on my familiar bed, I was still shaking uncontrollably.

"Aria..."

Zoran reached out to hold me, but I flinched away as if avoiding a disease.

For the first time, I saw sadness and guilt in his eyes.

He sat on the edge of the bed while I curled up in the corner. The room was dead silent.

Finally, Zoran broke the silence.

"Aria, I'll make this right someday."

He paused, his voice tinged with a hint of pleading.

"But... can you promise me you'll drop out of this design competition?"

I pressed my lips together, shaking my head slowly but firmly.

Right now, my dreams were all I had left. How could I possibly let go so easily?

He let out a resigned sigh.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go to the competition."

A guttural growl escaped my throat."You broke my heart, Aria!"

Zoran turned his face away, refusing to look at me.

"Just rest at home peacefully. I'll let you out after the competition is over."

For the next few days, I was confined to the house by Zoran, unable to go anywhere.

On the day of the competition, Ivy unexpectedly showed up at the door.

She had come to mock me, but upon glimpsing the stack of design drafts on my desk, her eyes turned red with jealousy.

"Aria, I won't let you beat me again!"

"The design competition championship is mine, and so is Zoran!"

With that, she grabbed a lighter and set my sketches on fire.

I lunged to extinguish the flames, but they were completely out of control, quickly spreading to the curtains beside the desk.

The fire grew larger and larger, the thick smoke stinging my eyes.

Ivy escaped alone, not forgetting to lock me in the room.

By the time Zoran rushed back, the house was already unrecognizable amidst the billowing smoke.

"Aria!"

Zoran recklessly charged towards the house engulfed in flames, only to be held back by firefighters at the police line.

From the crowd, one of his buddies came forward to restrain him.

"Zoran, don't be rash!The flames are too intense! Once you go in, you won't be able to come out!"

How could he not rush in? Aria was still inside!

The leaping flames reflected fear in Zoran's eyes.

He grabbed his brother's collar and snarled through gritted teeth.

"Weren't you supposed to be guarding the door? How did this happen?"

The other man looked innocent.

"Zoran, Ivy came by this morning, then asked me to take her to the competition venue..."

"I just got back not long ago..."

Zoran's heart sank.

Ivy had come by?

The man tried to comfort Zoran, "Zoran, don't panic. I heard the other residents all got out. Maybe Aria's already outside too."

Zoran clenched his fists.

To prevent Aria from escaping, he always kept the door locked from the outside. Could Aria have possibly escaped?

Thinking Zoran was worried about being implicated if something happened to Aria.

The man added ingratiatingly, "Even if something went wrong, it's not your fault. You didn't start the fire—"

"Shut up!" Zoran cut him off harshly.

His heart was racing with anxiety.

Aria, you can't be in danger.

He admitted to himself that initially, he had only approached Aria intending to toy with her!Aria schemed to snatch Ivy's championship title, and even back in the orphanage, she used to bully Ivy all the time!

He wanted to avenge his beloved sister!

But later, he discovered that Aria wasn't as bad as he had thought.

She would save food for him that she herself could barely afford to eat.

She would also get up at dawn to make him egg noodles just because he casually mentioned he was hungry.

When she caught a cold, she wouldn't even buy medicine for herself, only drinking hot water to alleviate her symptoms.

Yet she was willing to spend her hard-earned money on expensive imported medicine for him.

Although he ended up flushing all those pills down the toilet.

After two years together, he increasingly enjoyed Aria's kindness towards him, sometimes even forgetting his original purpose for getting close to her.

If it weren't for his buddies and Ivy constantly reminding him, he might have truly fallen in love with Aria...

No, perhaps he had already fallen in love with Aria.