Chapter 3Left at the Altar of Lies

Suddenly, a pathetic, trembling whimper echoed from the observation room next door. It was Paige.

Spencer's demeanor shifted instantly. All hesitation vanished.

"Keep drawing," he ordered coldly. "Paige is the one actively dying."

"Caroline, you made this mess. You pay the price."

As he watched my lips slowly turn a bruised shade of purple, Spencer seemed to waver. He reached out and gently rested his hand over mine.

"Just hold on a little longer. It's almost over," he murmured, his tone dripping with a sudden, sickening gentleness. "I just needed you to learn a lesson. You shouldn't have bullied her."

Revolted, I violently ripped my hand out from under his. I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to look at him for a second longer.

Spencer let out a heavy sigh. He pulled out his phone and made a call.

"That hyper-exclusive restorative stem-cell infusion they were auctioning off tonight? Call the concierge doctor. Tell him I'm buying it. Whatever the price."

I slowly faded into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, the private suite was empty. The only thing in the room was a steaming cup of an artisanal herbal restorative tea resting on my bedside table.

My body felt like lead, but I forced myself up. I didn't even glance at the cup. I shoved my feet into my shoes and staggered toward the door, desperate to leave.

As I passed the room next to mine, a weak, raspy voice called out.

It was Paige.

I paused for a fraction of a second, but I didn't turn around. I had no interest in her games.

But as I took my next step, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air behind me.

"Ah! It's burning!"

I instinctively whipped around. Paige was sitting up in bed, having just deliberately upended a scalding cup of boiling herbal broth entirely over her own forearm.

"Caroline!"

Spencer's roar echoed from the end of the hallway.

He sprinted into the room, grabbing my shoulder and violently shoving me inside with him.

"When the hell are you going to stop?!" Spencer's eyes were practically alight with fury. "You can't even leave a dying patient alone?"

I watched as he frantically grabbed sterile gauze, his hands trembling as he delicately tended to her burns. Suddenly, I just felt bone-deep exhaustion.

I looked right past him, fixing my gaze on Paige's eyes. My voice was eerily calm.

"I am not marrying Spencer. You can drop the act."

Spencer's hands froze.

After a few agonizing seconds, he slowly stood up. A patronizing, mocking smile touched the corners of his mouth.

"The doctor said your amnesia was temporary."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a worn, leather-bound notebook. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it onto the bed in front of me.

"When you finally remember how desperately you used to love me, you'll regret saying something so incredibly stupid."

My heart violently spasmed.

It was my diary. The one I had shyly pressed into his hands the night he confessed to me. Its pages were filled with a decade's worth of agonizing, embarrassing, heartfelt declarations of love that I had been too terrified to say out loud.

And now, he was using my own vulnerable, teenage heart as a weapon to humiliate me.

I bit down on my lower lip so hard I tasted copper, but the tears spilled over anyway, hot and unstoppable.

Spencer kept going.

"If you ever go back to being the kind, graceful Caroline Prescott I knew, I will respect you, love you, and protect you just like I used to."

"But look at you now. You're so consumed by jealousy you don't even care if someone dies."

"Selfish. Vicious... When did you turn into such a monster?"

I was choking on my own sobs, completely unable to form a word in my defense.

"She has always been exactly who she is."

A deep, commanding voice suddenly cut through the heavy air from the doorway. "She has always been a proud princess. And princesses never bow their heads. You are the one who failed her."