Baylee Allison POV:
I returned to the cold, imposing mansion they called my family home to retrieve the last of my things. The black sedan Susan had sent was idling quietly at the curb.
I just wanted to get in and get out.
I had barely dragged my suitcase onto the front porch when a sickeningly sweet voice chimed from the double doors. "Well, well, if it isn't our busy little Baylee."
I stopped, my fingers tightening around the handle, but I didn't turn around. Isabell. She always possessed an uncanny knack for ruining the air wherever she went.
The sharp click-clack of her heels echoed as she walked around to block my path. She looked me up and down, her eyes brimming with a toxic mix of triumph and contempt. "Going somewhere, sister? Running away to hide in your little flour dungeon?"
I ignored her, taking a firm step to the side.
She darted over, deliberately thrusting her left hand toward my face so the diamond ring caught the daylight. "Declan was just here. He was laughing about how desperate you looked on that video call. He said he misses having a free servant who does all his technical work, but he certainly doesn't miss you."
My jaw set firmly, but I kept my tone deadpan. "Get out of my way, Isabell."
My lack of reaction clearly annoyed her. Her sweet facade cracked, revealing a venomous sneer. "Oh, I forgot. You think you've landed on your feet, don't you? Kade Montgomery's girlfriend. Word travels fast."
The contract wasn't even twenty-four hours old, but the news had already reached her. A calculated leak by Susan Price to kick off the PR machine, no doubt.
Isabell leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "But do you really think you've hit the lottery, Baylee? Dad was on the phone in his study last night with the team board. Kade Montgomery’s knee isn't just injured—it’s completely shattered. His career is over."
She watched my face closely, hungrily searching for a flicker of devastation. "He's a washed-up cripple now. A pathetic, broken man who needs a cheap fake girlfriend to salvage what's left of his pride. You went from being the discarded ex of an up-and-coming star to the caretaker of a ruined ghost. How utterly fitting for you."
Her words were meant to poison me, but they completely missed the target. She thought I cared about Kade’s social capital. She had no idea that a "shattered god" made for a far more manageable, effective pawn.
My silence frustrated her. Needing a deeper blade to draw blood, she tilted her head, her lips twisting into a cruel, deliberate grin.
"You know, this pathetic savior complex you have—this tragic need to cling to damaged goods—it’s clearly genetic," Isabell said, flicking her styled hair over her shoulder. "Your mother was the exact same way, wasn't she?"
The air in my lungs froze.
"She was nothing but a cheap, opportunistic nobody who crawled into our family home, thinking she could trap Dad with her tragic little act," Isabell hissed, her voice dripping with foul malice. "And when everyone realized she was just a pathetic leech stealing from the family accounts, she threw her dramatic little fit and conveniently dropped dead just to guilt us all."
The entire world went dead quiet.
The rustling leaves, the idling engine at the curb, the thud of my own heart—everything vanished. The only sound echoing in my mind was her filthy, twisted lie about my late mother, Elara.
My mother, who had poured her heart, her fortune, and her life into building this family, only to be systematically cast aside, robbed, and driven into an early grave by these very parasites.
Before Isabell could even blink, my hand shot out like a steel trap.
I clamped my fingers around her throat and shoved her back hard.
Her back slammed against the cold stone pillar of the porch with a dull thud. Her breath hitch in a sharp, terrified gasp.
My grip was suffocating, forged from years of physical labor in the bakery and fueled by a white-hot, lethal rage.
Her smug expression vanished instantly, replaced by sheer panic as her hands clawed uselessly at my fingers. "W-What... let go... are you crazy?!"
I stepped close, leaning into her face, my voice dropping into a register so quiet, so dangerously frigid, it sounded like ice fracturing underfoot.
"Isabell Allison," I whispered into her ear, my eyes locking onto hers with unhinged, absolute fury. "You can steal my work. You can take my ex. You can play your pathetic little socialite games all day long."
I tightened my fingers just enough to feel the violent tremor running through her entire body.
"But if you ever," I said, each word a razor blade, "drag my mother’s name through your filthy mouth again... I will personally tear down every single thing you care about until you wish you were never born."
For the first time in her sheltered, privileged life, Isabell saw true danger in my eyes. She realized in that terrifying second that I wasn't the weak, quiet girl she could push around anymore.
I was a woman with nothing left to lose—and a terrifying amount of capacity to destroy.
I shoved her away. She collapsed against the base of the pillar, clutching her throat, gasping for air with wide, tear-filled eyes.
Without offering her another glance, I picked up my suitcase and walked down the steps toward the waiting black car.
The driver opened the door for me in stunned silence.
I slid into the plush leather interior and pulled the door shut, cutting off the sound of Isabell's ragged sobbing on the porch.
Looking down at my hands in my lap, I noticed they were trembling.
Not from fear.
From the icy, unstoppable fury that was now settled deep in my bones.
