Chapter 4

I desperately wanted to escape this place, so I waited outside the courtship room.

When they finally emerged, Derek recoiled at the sight of me, the disgust and loathing in his eyes utterly unconcealed.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

My face was caked with blood and grime, obscuring my features, and every attempt to wipe it clean only smeared the filth further.

"I'm Aria, Derek," I said. "You have to get me out of here safely."

He was responsible for everything I had become.

The words had barely left my lips when I myself was startled by how hoarse and raw my voice sounded.

Derek froze, stunned. But then, seeing my father’s familiar figure appear, I cried out again, more urgently:

"Take me away!"

Snapping out of his daze, Derek suddenly gripped my hand tightly.

Just as a flicker of hope ignited within me, thinking he would take me away, he questioned me with chilling composure.

"Who are you, really? How do you know Aria's name? What's happened to her?"

I was about to answer when my father's laughter drifted over to us.

"Aria?" he chuckled. "She's safe and sound at home. In fact, she was actually a bit more compliant this afternoon, so I rewarded her with a lovely selection of new clothes and jewelry."

At his words, Derek finally released my hand, only for his other hand to instantly shoot out and close around my throat.

"You're impersonating Aria," he snarled. "What are you plotting? What do you want with her?"

His face was a mask of savage fury, yet the raw worry for me that blazed in his eyes couldn't be faked.It wasn't until Olivia let out a soft cry that Derek finally released my hand.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, the mental connection is just a little unstable."

Father seized the opportunity to say, "In that case, Derek, why don't you take Olivia for another check-up? Just leave this impostor to me."

Derek, naturally, always put Olivia first. He nodded and then left with her.

As they turned to leave, I heard Olivia's question.

"Derek, I also think she looks a bit like Aria. Aren't you going to make absolutely sure?"

But Derek simply kissed her forehead.

"You silly girl," he murmured, "Father just said Aria is at home. And even if he hadn't, I'd be certain she isn't Aria."

"But why?"

"Aria always wore the promise bracelet I gave her. She loved me more than life itself; how could she ever bear to take it off?"

Before I learned of his betrayal, I had indeed always worn it. But after I was callously sent home, I threw that bracelet into the trash without a second thought.

Although Olivia was speaking to Derek, her mocking gaze was fixed on me.

The message in her eyes was crystal clear:

See? No matter how hard you try, so what? Derek can't even recognize you.

After they left, my father’s smile vanished in an instant, his face contorted with rage as he strode towards me.

"Just because I wasn't watching you for a moment, you had to be this disobedient?"

During the new round of torment, my consciousness drifted in and out.

I remembered Derek’s kindness from the very beginning.

After he helped me escape my gilded cage, facing my mother's passing and my father's disdain, I had already sunk into a deep depression.

Overcome by despair, I threw myself off a cliff.

But I never imagined Derek would recklessly leap after me, hurtling down towards me.

But it was only after the rescue team pulled me to safety that I learned he had fallen into a coma and was fighting for his life.

He was terrified of heights, yet he’d foolishly disregarded the danger to save me.

After cheating death, he was so good to me, gently guiding me out of the depths of my depression.

At first, I believed that the affection he showed by risking his life for me couldn't possibly be an act.

That was why I had tried, again and again, to show him my affection, but now, I no longer wanted to pin my hopes on him.

With the bonding ceremony only seven days away, Father finally began his "treatment" for me.

When he wasn't around, I borrowed the physician's communicator.

I sent a message to my betrothed.

"I know my father's secret—a secret that could destroy him and his entire pack. Help me, and I'll tell you everything."