I had just closed the page when a message from Wallis popped up on my phone, dripping with smugness.
"Sid has already decided to marry me."
"Kate."
"You're nothing but a cheap little schemer who clawed her way into the position of Mrs. Sanchez."
"I bet you never figured out why you couldn't get pregnant with a Sanchez heir for five whole years, did you?"
Wallis sent a video.
In it, she was straddling Sid, her voice a teasing purr.
"Is my big brother not up to the task?"
"How else could Mrs. Sanchez fail to secure her place with a child after five years?"
Sid's face was flushed with pleasure. He laughed, thrusting up against her.
"Me? Not up to the task?"
I listened to Wallis's breathy moans, then heard Sid's voice again, casual and careless.
"Of course she can't get pregnant. She's just some village girl. And with her father's inferior genes? My parents would never allow it. And I wasn't about to throw away my inheritance for real."
"Slipping her something was hardly difficult for me."
His voice was light, dismissive—but every word was a blade plunging into my chest, twisting.
"Marrying her was already a gift."
"She should spend her whole life grateful for that honor."
"Otherwise..."
"She'd just be merchandise in her father's hands. Sooner or later, she'd end up married to someone just like him."
My vision blurred.
I remembered my mother, beaten until she was half-paralyzed, still using every ounce of strength to hold back my father while screaming for me to run. Run out of these mountains. Find someone powerful. Find protection. Be a free bird. And never look back.
And I did find someone.
I brought Sid back to those mountains in triumph. He looked at our cramped, shabby home without a trace of disgust—only heartache for me. His eyes reddened as he pulled me into his arms.
"Kate."
"I'll never let you suffer again."
Sid brought doctors to examine my mother. He brought bodyguards. He gathered every piece of evidence against my father and personally escorted him to prison, telling him:
"From now on."
"Whenever you see Kate, you keep your head down and your mouth shut."
"Otherwise, I'll make you wish you were dead."
I was finally free of my family. Everything seemed to be getting better. All because of Sid. He gave me a new life. He pulled me out of the abyss, out of those mountains, and shaped me into someone whole. Someone new.
And now I was standing here again.
I looked at the messages Wallis sent like clockwork every day. The billion-dollar bet was all anyone could talk about—everyone placing wagers on whether I'd be thrown out on the street. Even Wallis had sent a screenshot of her ten-million-dollar stake, telling me:
"Kate."
"Believe it or not."
"I will make sure you're kicked out of the Sanchez family."
At the same time, Sid finally remembered I existed. He deigned to call me, his voice as beautiful as ever—and just as cold.
"Have you come to your senses yet?"
"You should understand what people are saying out there. If you leave me, Kate, you'll go right back to being the girl everyone stepped on. You'll be that girl from the mountains again, the one who could only look up at life from the gutter. Are you sure you want to crawl back into the sewer and be a rat again?"
Once, I had asked Sid:
"What if one day..."
"You fall out of love with me?"
He just laughed and said it would never happen.
I didn't believe him.
I kept pushing, demanding some kind of guarantee.
In the year when Sid loved me most, he held me in his arms and asked with a smile:
"What kind of guarantee do you want?"
"Whatever it is, I'll give it to you."
I asked for a billion dollars.
I took that billion in cash and paid off the media. I planted the stories myself—mocking headlines about how I'd schemed my way to the top, how I'd trapped the Sanchez heir into marrying me. I bought up every front page and launched the bet myself.
