Chapter 3

Jillian Chapman POV:

Ida was recovering. A small, vibrant miracle. Her chest still bore the faint line of a scar, a testament to the surgery, but her laughter echoed through the spacious, sunlit room. A new heart, a new chance. Grayson' s heart. He' d been the one, the perfect match. The irony was a bitter pill.

I watched her, a tenderness so profound it ached, as she carefully stacked colorful blocks. My child. My brave, resilient child.

"Mommy, look!" she exclaimed, pointing to a corner of the room. "Presents!"

My gaze followed hers. A small mountain of brightly wrapped boxes sat on a mahogany table. Toys, clothes, books. All new. All expensive.

"Are they from the man?" Ida asked, her voice hushed with wonder.

I nodded, a silent affirmation. Grayson had been showering us with gifts since Ida' s recovery. A gilded cage, perhaps, but a cage nonetheless. A comfortable one.

Ida' s eyes widened. "He' s so rich, Mommy! Maybe... maybe we can use his money to buy us a real house? And a big, big library, like grandpa had?"

Her words, innocent as they were, pierced me. A real house. A library. The life I once had, the life they had stolen.

My mind drifted, unbidden, back to another time, another life. A life before the fall.

The soft hum of string music, the scent of white roses, the gentle murmur of anticipation. It was my wedding day. I was standing beside Grayson, his hand warm and strong in mine, the officiant' s words a blur of happiness. Then, the lights flickered. A sudden, jarring darkness.

A blinding spotlight pierced the gloom, illuminating the large projector screen above us. My breath caught. My father' s face, then a headline: "Professor Miles Accused of Predatory Behavior." Beneath it, a grainy photo of him and Grayson' s sister, her arm linked through his, walking in the rain. An innocent act of kindness, twisted into something sinister.

Then, the footage changed. My own face, younger, vulnerable. A series of intimate videos, edited to portray me as manipulative, coercive. My voice, whispering endearments to Grayson, twisted into a confession of exploiting a naive student.

"Jillian, tell them," Grayson' s voice, cold and detached, had sliced through the shocked silence. "Tell them you seduced me. Tell them your father preyed on my sister."

I had stared at him, my heart shattering into a million pieces. The man I loved, my fiancé, was a stranger. A monster.

"She' s lying!" I' d screamed, my voice raw with disbelief. "My father is innocent! He helped your sister!"

But the words were drowned out by the shouts of my father' s colleagues, former friends, now turning on him like a pack of wolves. "Disgrace! Pedophile!"

My father, Dr. Miles, frail and heartbroken, had tried to explain. He' d chased after them, desperate to clear his name. I' d heard the screech of tires, the horrified screams. He was gone.

My mother, unable to bear the weight of the scandal, had spiraled. She' d lost everything, gambled it away, then taken her own life.

And me? Grayson had me institutionalized. Declared unfit, insane. I was pregnant then. Our son, Adam, was born behind those cold, padded walls. They took him from me, just hours after he entered the world. Kiera, smiling, had carried him away, whispering, "He' s better off without you, Jillian."

Grayson visited sometimes. Drunk. He' d lean over my bed, his breath reeking of whiskey. "Look at you, Jillian. A tragic figure. You brought this all on yourself. You and your family of degenerates." He would hit me then, a backhand across the face, then leave. Leaving me broken, alone, covered in bruises and despair.

A knock startled me back to the present. Grayson stood in the doorway, a small, leather-bound journal in his hand. The journal. The one I strategically "lost."

"You left this," he said, his voice quiet, his gaze wary. He held it out to me. "I haven' t read it. Not a word."

He was lying. I could see it in the slight tremor of his hand, the way his eyes avoided mine. The guilt was a palpable thing, radiating from him.

"Keep it," I said, my voice flat, devoid of interest. I didn' t reach for it. "It' s meaningless to me now."

The room fell silent, heavy with unspoken words. He stood there, holding the journal, looking lost. This was exactly what I wanted. To make him doubt, to make him question everything he thought he knew.

"I need to check on Ida' s medication," I said, using the excuse to escape. I walked past him, heading for the bathroom.

He moved swiftly, blocking the doorway, his arm bracing against the frame, trapping me. His eyes raked over my face, lingering on the faint shadows beneath my eyes, the weary lines around my mouth. "You' re still so thin," he murmured, his thumb brushing lightly against my cheek. The touch was unexpected, a ghost of intimacy that made my skin crawl.

"You have a strange way of showing concern, Grayson," I said, my voice laced with ice. "Usually, it involves locking me up or tearing my family apart."

He flinched. "Jillian, I... I can give you anything you want. Money. A new life. Anything." He released me, stepping back. "I know I messed up. Terribly. But I swear, I thought... I thought your father was a monster. I thought you... you misled me."

"And now?" I asked, meeting his gaze directly. "Now you think I' m deserving of your charity? Your pity?" A bitter smile twisted my lips. "Perhaps I am. Perhaps I always deserved this. To be broken. To be humiliated. To have everything I loved stripped away."

His eyes widened, shock warring with confusion. This wasn' t the defiant, spitting woman he remembered. This was a broken shell, seemingly accepting her fate. This was my new masquerade.

The old Jillian would have screamed. She would have fought him, cursed him, flung accusations like daggers. I remembered the desperation, the frantic energy of my initial resistance, the way I'd scratched and bit and clawed at him, only to be subdued, injected, and locked away. That Jillian was dead. This Jillian was far more dangerous.

He hesitated, then pulled out his phone. A few taps, and then, "I' ve just transferred five million dollars to your account, Jillian. It' s a start."

The sheer audacity of it. Five million dollars for a lifetime of suffering. But it was a start. A necessary resource for my plan.

Just then, his phone rang again. A familiar name flashed across the screen. Kiera Lara. Grayson winced, then answered, his voice softening slightly, though a thread of annoyance was still present. "Kiera, what is it? I' m busy."

I heard Kiera' s shrill voice from the other end, barely muffled. "Grayson, where are you? Adam is asking for you. He' s had a nightmare. He misses you, darling." Her tone was possessive, manipulative.

Grayson sighed. He looked at me, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. "Jillian," he said, his voice hesitant. "Adam... he asks about you sometimes. Would you... would you consider visiting him? Just for a little while?"

The question hung in the air, a test, a plea. My mind raced. This was an unexpected turn. This was an opportunity.