Chapter 1
The day Lily Evans was recognized as the heiress of the Sterling family, she refused her brother Samuel Sterling's offer to return to Northbridge.
With red-rimmed eyes and a trembling voice, she asked for only one thing.
"Samuel... can you give me a lot of money?"
Lily's husband, Jason Johnson, was suffering from acute renal failure. The doctors said without an immediate transplant, he wouldn't survive.
Lily needed the money to save him.
Samuel, ruthless in the boardroom, broke down and cried.
When his pleas failed, he pressed a $300 million card into her palm and left, his heart heavy.
Lily wiped away her tears, still wearing her tattered, dirty clothes, and ran.
She wanted to tell Jason the good news.
At the ward door, she heard voices inside.
"Good thing Jason's smart. If he hadn't faked acute renal failure, that country bumpkin Lily would never have agreed to donate her kidney to Sophie."
"Lily's so stupid. Jason tricked her by pretending to be poor when they first met. Now he's tricked her again by pretending to be sick."
*****
Lily's blood froze in an instant, and it felt like the world exploded in her ears, forcing her to stagger back a few steps.
She gripped the edge of her old yellow tee so hard that her knuckles turned pale.
She could hear every word spoken inside the room, each one crystal clear.
But when she tried to piece them together, it was as if her mind refused to understand what they meant.
The door was left barely closed, with a wide gap that let Lily see everything inside.
Through that opening, Lily could only watch as Jason, who was supposed to be the patient, sat there with a gentle look on his face, peeling a banana and tenderly feeding it to the girl lying in the hospital bed.
Lily knew that girl—it was Sophie Lawrence.
Jason's voice was gentle as he stopped the others from speaking ill of Lily. "Don't say that about Lily. From eighteen to twenty-five, for seven whole years, she loved me so much that she was willing to do anything for me.
"I never wanted to hurt her, but Sophie needed a kidney, and Lily was the only match. There was nothing else I could do. She's my wife, the one who'll be with me for life. I'll always be good to her."
Someone chimed in, "Jason, you and Lily have been married for four years now. When are you going to tell her you're the heir to Johnson Group?"
Jason's expression darkened, and he stopped peeling the banana in his hand.
He was silent for a long time before finally saying, "It's not the right time yet. If I tell her now, I'm afraid she won't be able to take it.
"What you all did to her back then messed her up so badly. If she ever finds out who I really am and the truth about us, it'll destroy her.
"I went through hell to make her stay with me. If she finds out and leaves, I'll never forgive myself for it."
By the end, Jason's voice was shaking, like he was truly hurting inside.
Sophie's long hair was smooth as silk, and her voice was soft and a little coy.
She chewed on the banana, her cheeks puffed out as she spoke. "Jason, you had us pick on and rough up Lily back then so you could swoop in and play the hero, all to get close to her, right?
"She's a nobody from the slums. If you hadn't pretended to be broke, how would you even know if she was after your money?
"It's not your fault. She landed the future heir to the Johnson Group. People would kill for that. What more could she possibly want?
"She was so full of herself back in high school, always acting like she was better than everyone because her grades were good.
"She never talked to anyone, so if she hadn't been like that, I wouldn't have had to help you come up with a way to get close to her."
The conversation inside the room kept going, every word like a poisoned dagger, stabbing right into Lily's heart and mercilessly twisting the knife.
Lily slid down the wall, her body limp and nearly broken. In a matter of moments, her entire world shattered.
So all those years of hell she'd suffered were all a twisted setup, carefully planned by Jason, the man she loved, just so he could get close to her.
She'd always seen him as her hero, the one who saved her from misery. She was grateful, gave him everything, loved him with all she had, and stayed by his side.
But she never realized that her so-called savior was actually the devil who'd dragged her into hell from the very start.
Lily couldn't help but feel ridiculous for having been fooled by Jason for so many years. She trembled uncontrollably, the pain so overwhelming she couldn't shed a single tear or utter a word.
It felt like her shattered heart was flooding her entire body with agony, threatening to swallow her whole and suffocate her from the inside out.
Lily had made up her mind. She would no longer give Jason her kidney. And she would never love him again.
She couldn't take this marriage full of lies and manipulation for another second.
Her pastry shop was shutting down, and she was done with Jason. Three days were all she needed to end it for good.
Clinging to the wall, barely able to stand, she stumbled out of that hellhole, desperate to escape the place that made her sick.