Chapter 2Their Replacement Bride Wants Blood

Five days until I was handed over to the Russians.

A storm raged outside. I sat in my dark room, coldly tossing a few old clothes into a suitcase.

The door opened without a knock.

Isla walked in, wearing a silk nightgown. On her neck, a diamond necklace that seared my eyes. It was the Caldwell family heirloom Julian had promised me for our “secret wedding.”

“Packing, sister?” Isla leaned against the doorframe, toying with the diamonds, her eyes mocking me. “I heard you extorted a hundred million from Dad. Impressive. But you have to be alive to spend it. Everyone in the underworld knows that Don is a psycho. You show up with a hundred million in cash? You won’t see the sun for three days. That money will just buy you a tombstone.”

I closed my laptop and looked at her. “Get out.”

She didn’t move. She stepped closer, her voice a venomous hiss. “Are you still hoping Julian will save you? Let me tell you a secret. The thugs who broke your ribs in the alley? Julian knew I hired them.”

My breath caught.

Isla giggled. “He didn’t just let it happen. He told me himself. You were too stubborn. A street rat needs to learn her place. Blood means nothing, Aurora. I am the real daughter of this house. You think you can take a hundred million, leave, and come back for revenge one day? Dream on. Julian’s heart is mine. You’re just the human shield he’s using to block a Russian bullet.”

I had no hope left, but hearing that level of cold calculation still made my stomach turn.

“Get. Out.” I bit down my rage, my eyes locked on hers.

A psychotic gleam filled her eyes. As long as I was alive, as long as Julian had that flicker of guilt and possession in his eyes when he looked at me, she would never be at peace.

She suddenly ripped the diamond necklace from her neck. The stones scattered on the carpet. Then, she dug her sharp nails into her own forearm, drawing two bloody lines.

She stepped back, and threw herself straight down the grand staircase.

“Ahh! Sister, please, don’t hit me!”

Her shriek tore through the silence of the estate.

Less than ten seconds later, my parents—and Julian, who had just arrived—rushed to the staircase like sharks smelling blood.

My mother saw Isla bleeding on the steps and cradled her like she was dying.

She looked up at me, her eyes red, skinning me alive with her pain.

“Aurora! We took you out of the slums, and this is how you repay us?! Isla has a heart condition! You already got your hundred million, why can’t you just leave her alone?! Do you want her dead?!”

My father stormed up the steps, his face dark.

He didn’t even ask what happened. He just stared at me with pure disappointment. “I thought taking the money meant you’d finally learned your place. You better stay in line before you’re shipped out. If your jealousy messes up this alliance, there will be no place for you in this family!”

Julian ran up the stairs.

He looked at me, a flash of guilt in his eyes.

But it vanished. He walked right past me and gently swept Isla into his arms.

“Aurora,” Julian said, his face a mask of fake agony. “I thought you’d just take the money and go. But look at you, twisted with jealousy. I am so disappointed in you.”

Like he was some merciful god, and I was a sinner beyond saving.

I leaned against the doorframe. I didn’t argue. I didn’t cry.

I just slowly raised my hand and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth with my thumb.

Looking at the scattered diamonds, at this pack of hypocrites I called “family” and “love,” I couldn’t stop a low, dark laugh from escaping my lips.

Good.

That slap finally severed the last thread of hope I ever had for this family.

In five days, I will make every single one of you wish you were dead.