“You finally made up your mind!”
Captain Dickerson's voice burst through the phone, barely containing his excitement.
“I always said a criminal investigation talent like you shouldn't be wasting away at this precinct. But the division you're transferring into is special. Highly classified, completely off the books.”
“You need to understand what you're agreeing to. Once you sign that agreement, you cease to exist. Your name, your past, every social connection you've ever had will be erased.”
“I understand.” Marian lowered her eyes. Her voice was flat, still as dead water.
She had turned it down before without a second thought, because she believed Herman needed her.
Now there was no reason to stay.
“All right. Get your things in order. You leave in three days.”
She hung up and sat curled on the curb, alone, through the entire night.
Dawn had barely begun to lighten the sky when she dragged herself, bone-tired, back to the basement apartment. Less than three hundred square feet.
The place was crumbling, damp, paint peeling off the walls in strips. No windows.
Marian stood in the narrow entryway and looked around the room. No heat, either.
She almost laughed.
As the top forensic and investigative specialist at the precinct, she could have lived comfortably. More than comfortably.
But her salary always ended up in Herman's hands, drained away under one excuse or another.
Every few days he managed to get himself into some new disaster. Scratching someone's luxury car. Injuring a pedestrian badly enough to cause permanent disability……
In the end, every dollar she had saved over the years went into the bottomless pit of his debts, spent down to nothing.
She unlocked her phone. The image hit her like a blade: Herman with his arm around Sandra, walking back into the James estate together.
A glaring headline sat pinned at the top of the page.
【James Heir Sets Aside Blood Feud for Love, Willingly Accepts His Mother's Killer as Stepmother!】
Her fingertips were ice-cold. She opened a social media app and found Sandra's account with no effort at all.
Then she scrolled, punishing herself with every post.
Valentine's Day. Sandra beaming in front of a wall of 9,999 roses Herman had sent her.
That same day, Marian had been cornered in a filthy alley by men Herman sent, beaten until she couldn't stand.
Sandra's birthday. Herman had booked an entire private island for her. She sat at a table overflowing with delicacies, grinning as she held up a lobster the length of her arm.
That same day, Marian's freshly deposited paycheck had been siphoned off by Herman to cover yet another one of his messes. Penniless, she had gone to the farmer's market to fight with beggars over wilted vegetables no one else wanted……
Her grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles went white. Tears fell, heavy and fast, shattering against the screen.
She sat there from daylight into deep night.
The lock clicked.
Herman walked in wearing the same threadbare plumber's uniform he always came home in, a different man entirely from the one in the tailored suit that morning.
He saw her still sitting on the bed. His brow creased, and he opened his mouth to speak.
Marian thrust Sandra's profile page toward him, her voice cold and level.
“Stop pretending.”
Caught, Herman stiffened for a fraction of a second, so brief it was almost invisible. Then his expression loosened back into easy indifference.
He glanced at Sandra's page without interest, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“Look how gullible that woman is. Toss her a few scraps and she's over the moon.”
“When I got thrown out of the James family, she turned her back on me without blinking. Now her family's fallen apart, and it's the perfect time to settle old scores. You think I actually want her? Once I get bored, I'll kick her to the curb and let her find out what it feels like to be abandoned.”
He turned toward Marian and reached out, brushing his fingers across her brow. His voice went soft, dripping with tenderness that rang hollow.
“You know you're the only one I've ever loved.”
Marian slapped his hand away. ：“So that's why you went crawling back and made peace with the family? Herman, how can you face your mother? That woman had both her kidneys cut out of her, and you're calling her killer 'Mom'?”
“And what about me?!”
She paused, then said, ice in every syllable:
“I despise you.”
A flash of anger crossed Herman's face.
“The James empire was always mine!” He kicked the stool beside him and sent it crashing across the floor, his voice climbing. “I am the rightful James heir. You expect me to give up that kind of fortune and rot in this filthy, stinking basement with you forever? I am sick of living like this!”
He ripped the threadbare work jacket off his body and hurled it to the ground, then jabbed a finger at Marian. Undisguised revulsion filled his eyes.
“Look at you. You reek of poverty from three blocks away. You're not even fit to carry my shoes.”
Marian was shaking so hard she could barely stand.
She stared at the snarling stranger in front of her and could not recognize a single thing about him.
Was this the same man who used to make her porridge, who would crouch down to tie her shoelaces, who stayed up with her through late shifts even when he could barely keep his eyes open?
Something in her expression must have registered, because Herman's tone softened again.
He gathered her onto the bed and held her, stroking her back.
“When I lost everything, my friends, my uncles, even my fiancée all turned their backs on me. You were the only one who stood by me. I won't forget that. Bringing Sandra back is only about revenge, nothing more. Marian, you're my wife.”
“Besides, I went back to the James family for our future. Think about it. Once I take the company back, you'll be Mrs. James. No more hiding in this basement. No more running from the people trying to kill you. Isn't that what you want?”
Marian said nothing.
The room went dark. Beside her, he drifted off to sleep.
His arm lay across her waist like a brand fresh from the fire, burning so deep it scorched her soul.
She lay with her eyes wide open, staring at the pitch-black ceiling while cold seeped in from every direction, burrowing into the cracks between her bones.
The next day, Marian went to the precinct and finished her handover.
She let out a long breath. One more day, and she would be gone for good.
Back at the apartment, she began packing her things.
Herman's footsteps sounded behind her without warning.
Her heart lurched. She spun around.
“Marian, why are you packing?”
