Chapter 5

A powerful shove sent me stumbling backward. My ankle twisted, and I fell hard, my palms scraping against the rough gravel.

Before I could even process what happened, Grady was there, a blur of motion. He launched himself into the muddy pit without a second's hesitation.

He emerged carrying Kandy, both of them covered in mud and filth. He ignored his own state, frantically wiping the mud from her face.

"Kandy! Are you okay? What happened?" he asked, his voice tight with panic.

She clung to him, sobbing. "I'm okay... but the ring... she pushed me, and my ring fell in the water!" Her words were a clear, sharp accusation.

His gaze snapped to me, his eyes clouded with suspicion. This was not a sudden leap. For days, Kandy had been subtly poisoning his mind against me. I'd seen it in his guarded glances, heard it in her hushed, tearful whispers to him late at night. She'd framed my quiet presence as lurking, my sad smiles as mockery. She had painted me as a resentful sister, jealous of the attention he was giving his new love. He didn't know the truth, but he saw her tears, and he'd been conditioned to see me as the cause.

His heart, I could see, was being squeezed tight by her tears. His gaze hardened, turning to ice. "Who pushed you?" he demanded, his voice dangerously low. "Who bullied you?"

Kandy didn't answer. She just gave me a quick, tearful glance. It was all the confirmation he needed.

I pushed myself up, my ankle screaming in protest. "I didn't touch her," I said, my voice hoarse with disbelief.

Grady's eyes raked over me, cold and dismissive. "I saw what happened."

"I have no reason to want her ring," I argued, my voice shaking.

"Enough!" he cut me off, his patience gone. He turned to the two hulking bodyguards who had appeared at the edge of the pit. "Seal the area. No one leaves until that ring is found."

He turned back to me, his face a mask of cold fury. "You heard her. She wants the ring. If you're innocent, then prove it. Find the damn ring."

Before I could protest, the guards blocked my path out of the muddy construction site. The implication was clear. I was the suspect, and I was being detained here until I found the evidence of my supposed crime.

The winter water was a brutal, icy shock. It stole my breath and sent shivers racking through my body. I tried to walk away, but one of the guards stepped in front of me.

"Find the ring, Miss Harrison," he said, his voice devoid of any emotion. "Or you're not getting out."

I bit my lip, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. There was no point in fighting. I sank to my knees and began to feel around in the thick, cold mud.

The filthy water soaked through my clothes, and my fingers quickly grew numb and stiff.

I could see Grady standing at the edge of the pit, a silhouette against the gray sky. He watched me, his face unreadable. For a moment, I saw a flicker of conflict in his eyes, a war between his instinct and his new reality. But it was fleeting. He chose to believe her.

I searched from dawn until dusk. The sun had long set when my numb fingers finally closed around the small, cold band of the ring.

It was the lotus design, the one from my sketchbook. The ring he was supposed to give me.

I was frozen, my lips blue, my skin blotchy and purple. I could barely stand. I clutched the ring and stumbled toward the house, each step an agony.

I knocked on the door to his room. The sounds of laughter and playful chatter from inside stopped abruptly.

Grady opened the door. When he took the ring from my hand, our fingers brushed. He flinched back as if burned by the coldness of my skin.

He stared at me, his brow furrowed in a deep frown. "Stay away from Kandy from now on," he warned, his voice low and heavy.

"For the sake of our past," he continued, the words a cruel mockery, "I can still think of you as a sister."

My voice was a trembling whisper. "Isn't that what you've always thought of me as?"

He grabbed my arm, his grip tight and punishing. "Stop playing these games," he snarled. "I've heard the servants talking. I've seen the looks you give me. You're trying to get my attention."

I froze. He thought... he thought I was trying to seduce him.

Before I could find my voice to defend myself, he let go, wiping his hand on his pants as if he'd touched something disgusting.

"Stop it," he warned. "I only have room in my heart for Kandy."

He took the ring, the symbol of my stolen past, and tossed it out the open window into the darkness. "She doesn't even like this design. I'll make her a new one."

I watched it disappear. A bitter, broken sound that might have been a laugh escaped my lips.

He had already decided my past was a burden.

I went back to my room, showered until my skin was raw, and made sure I looked normal before going down to dinner with the Allens. I couldn't explain. They wouldn't understand, and it would only make things worse.

I lay in bed that night, wide awake, the image of his cold, accusing eyes burned into my mind. I told myself it was just the shock of losing something I'd always had. A habit. It was just a habit I had to break.

But later, in the dead of night, I found myself creeping out into the yard, searching in the dark, cold grass for the ring he had thrown away.

I didn't know why. I just couldn't stand the thought of it being lost out there, abandoned.

My fingers finally closed around it. As I stood up, clutching the cold metal, the world erupted in light and heat.

The mansion was on fire.