Chapter 4

On the third night, Leon suddenly showed up at the orphanage, limping as he rushed over to me.

His face and legs were covered in bruises and scrapes, but as soon as he saw me, he grabbed me in a tight hug.

I shoved him away hard, yelling, "Get lost, you fair-weather friend. You damn backstabber."

Leon's eyes were red, and he blurted out, "My dad kept me locked up. It took me days to find a chance to sneak out the window and make it here. Nathan got sent overseas, too.

"Zoe, my dad might not care about the Turner family anymore, but Nathan and I never forgot you."

As he spoke, Leon shoved a wad of cash and a bank card into my arms, without letting me say no. "Just use it for now. It's my pocket money. You already know the password."

I hated the Hart family for being so heartless.

When I opened my mouth to yell at him, the tears came first.

Leon fumbled, trying to calm me down. "Zoe, Nathan and I will always be here for you."

For years, Bruce and I barely scraped by.

Nathan stayed overseas for years and never came back.

Leon was the only one who never stopped looking out for Bruce and me.

Word around school was that the guy who kept showing up for me was actually dating me.

Leon didn't hold back. He straight up said, "I like Zoe, period. Once Zoe turns eighteen, I'm gonna make her my wife, no matter what."

After I graduated from college, Leon started working at Hart Group, and that was when we finally got together.

Not long after, Nathan returned from studying abroad and began running Hart Group.

In my memory, Nathan was still the friend who'd sit by the window, playing the piano with that calm, graceful air.

So when he asked me out for dinner, I went with Leon.

That night, Nathan got wasted and poured his heart out to me. I thought he was drunk and didn't know what he was saying.

I thought he'd never change. But I was wrong. People can change, like that.

Even Nathan, that gentle friend from my childhood, wasn't really the good kid I remembered after all.

Nathan called me. He said, "Zoe, Leon's drunk. Can you come check on him?"

I went over.

But that night, I never saw Leon. Nathan wouldn't let me leave the Hart residence.

I could never bring myself to remember what happened that night.

But on countless nights, those memories would sneak back into my dreams. Like ghosts, they haunted me, slipping into my mind no matter how hard I tried to shut them out.

Nathan, the one I always thought was gentle, stubbed out a burning cigarette right on my skin.

I couldn't even feel the pain, just the icy terror that gripped me in that moment.

I couldn't remember the hopelessness of that night, or any of the details.

All I could recall was the heavy, dim darkness in that bedroom.

The moonlight spilling through the sheer curtains felt like an endless web I could never escape.

All I could remember was that sweet scent in the air, so thick it was almost hard to breathe.

After the moonlight slipped away, I noticed my phone screen lighting up next to my pillow.

The caller ID said "Leon."

Nathan was lying right there beside me, and he picked up the call before I could.

With that same gentle smile, he told Leon, "Zoe's having breakfast with me. Don't worry."

Leon let out a sigh of relief and hung up.

See? It was not my fault I couldn't see through him. Even Leon, his own brother, never once doubted him.

I still went to see Leon.

Bruce wasn't in good health, and I didn't dare tell him the truth.

Leon was the only person I could confide in. I said, "Nathan hurt me. He did awful things to me."

Leon hugged me, but there was something off in his expression. "Zoe, are you alright? Are you sick?"

As he spoke, he put his hand on my forehead.

I said it again, to make sure he heard me.

Leon looked at me, worry written all over his face. "Zoe, you and I both know what Nathan's like. We've known him since we were little.

"Zoe, you're confused because you've got a fever. Let me take you to the hospital first."

I looked at him.

Suddenly, I felt like he was no better than Nathan, just as sickening.

Leon took me to the hospital, then went off on his own to investigate what really happened that night.

Nathan was so meticulous that he never left a single clue behind, not even a trace.

No one would ever believe that Nathan, the golden boy of the Hart family, always so gentle and kind, could ever cross the line like that.

The psychiatrist said I must have been out of it, and that's how I ended up burning myself with a cigarette.

One night, while Leon was staying with me at the hospital, I grabbed his phone and slipped out.

I knew all his passwords.

I unlocked his phone and opened the encrypted folder.

I took everything I found in there, along with everything I knew about Hart Group. I personally delivered them to its biggest rival.

The man smiled and asked, "Ms. Turner, you've given me such a generous gift. What kind of reward are you looking for?"

It was evening, and the aroma of food wafted in from the street.

I thought for a second and said, "I'm a little hungry, so why not buy me dinner?"

The man was caught off guard. "Ms. Turner, you must be kidding. All that, for a meal?"

"Yeah, a meal," I replied, meeting his gaze.

Of course, that was a lie.

I sold out the Hart family for one reason and one reason only: I wanted them to go down in flames.

That night, when Nathan took me to the room, David saw it all. But he looked away and pretended he didn't see a thing.

When I got back, I found out Bruce had been following Nathan.

He stabbed Nathan with a knife, then took a blunt object and shattered both his legs.

At least one person in this world believed me.

Even though I never said a word to Bruce, he figured it out anyway.

After that, I was like a stray dog with nowhere to go. I took the money from Hart Group's rival and fled the country with Bruce.

Back in Northgate, everything was turned upside down.

Leon and I never even got the chance to break up or say goodbye.