Chapter 1

My grandmother died right before I got my acceptance letter from Broadmoor University.

Her body was soaked in blood, her eyes wide open in a frozen look of agony.

It was all because she'd picked up a diary a powerful scion had carelessly thrown away while working at the dump. That one small action sealed her tragic fate.

Later, I gave up my admission to Broadmoor University and became the tycoon's favorite lover.

He looked at me with soft eyes and whispered, "Be a good girl, and I'll give you anything you want."

I smirked. "Even your life?"

*****

I was tending to Michael Stevens' wounds, his bare shoulders exposed, when Kelsey Lopez, wrapped in nothing but a towel, appeared behind me.

Just thirty minutes earlier, Michael had called. I grabbed my first aid kit and rushed over, only to find deep, bleeding bite marks on his shoulder.

Seeing Kelsey here, Michael's first love, I instantly understood where the injuries had come from.

I look so much like her. That was probably why Michael fell for me the moment we met at that bar.

"Michael, who is this woman?" Kelsey's eyes brimmed with hostility, but only I could see it.

"Just a secretary from the office." Michael had warned me multiple times before Kelsey returned from abroad that I was never to let her find out about us.

As I walked past her, she "accidentally" knocked over a vase. The broken shards slashed deep into my skin.

I didn't say a word. Kelsey quickly stepped in, all innocent. "Oh, Michael, that vase didn't look right there. I was trying to move it. It wasn't anything valuable, was it?"

"Useless trash. Not worth a dime." Michael echoed her insult without hesitation, reducing me to nothing.

When he noticed blood pouring from my ankle, his face clouded over. "Get out of here!" he barked.

I told myself to stay calm.

But the image of my grandma's face in her final moments kept flashing through my mind.

That same helpless, soul-crushing agony came rushing back.

I was abandoned as a child. Mildred Lane found me in a dumpster and raised me as her own.

She named me Iris Lane, like the flower.

Just like the iris stood for hope, she wanted me to face life with optimism, no matter how tough things got.

We only had each other. She was my whole world.

Because of chronic malnutrition, I stayed painfully skinny during my teenage years.

Mildred was terrified I'd be bullied, so no matter where I went to school, she'd get a janitor job there, supporting us with whatever she could scavenge.

I hated watching her struggle, so I threw myself into my studies, determined to give her a better life.

Luckily, I did well in high school. I was always top of my class.

All my teachers said I was a guaranteed candidate for Broadmoor University. Back then, I truly believed I had a future.

But right before the SATs, on what seemed like an ordinary evening, Mildred died.

She was killed just across the street from our house.

She was carrying a basket full of my favorite foods, probably planning to cook me a special dinner that weekend.

If only she'd crossed that sidewalk, she would've been home.

But she never made it.

Later, I found out the truth. It was Michael who caused her death.

Back then, when he heard Kelsey was leaving the country, he dumped everything that reminded him of her, including a leather-bound diary filled with a few scattered entries about his teenage crush.

In those poor days, all I ever wanted was a decent notebook.

Mildred had never seen such a high-end journal. So when she found it tossed away, she brought it home.

After gently cleaning it up, she left it on my desk, excited to surprise me when I came home that weekend.

But when Michael discovered that Mildred had taken the notebook, he panicked. He assumed his secrets had been exposed. Without asking questions, he rounded up his gang and went straight to beat her.

Mildred couldn't fight back. She stayed curled up on the ground, shielding the basket of vegetables with her frail body.

They didn't stop until they got bored.

Mildred was barely able to stand then.

She wiped the blood from her lip, staggering toward the alley's exit. Just then, a car came speeding by.

Fueled by cruel amusement, Michael landed another brutal kick on the already staggering Mildred.

The front bumper of a speeding car slammed straight into her, hurling her body down the street like a ragdoll.

I later reviewed the street surveillance footage and watched the entire vicious attack. It crushed me. I cried so hard I nearly passed out.

But when the police followed up on my report and checked the same footage, all they saw was a screen full of blinding static.

It must've been Michael. He had to have paid to have the footage wiped clean.

Even the surveillance camera at the alley's entrance had conveniently malfunctioned.

Michael killed Mildred.

But everyone around me kept insisting I let it go.

They kept saying, "What can someone like you possibly do? You're just a nobody going up against a force like Michael."

Eventually, I gave up my spot at Broadmoor University and enrolled in the second-rate college Michael attended. From that point on, I started reeling him in, determined to drag both of us down together.

Since Kelsey was his first love, I would become the one memory he could never erase—one that would stain his very soul.