Chapter 3 Chapter 3

Sophia was shaking with rage, about to lose it, when footsteps echoed from the courtyard.

"What's going on?" Theodore strode in, his eyes flicking between us before landing on Sophia's swollen cheek. His brow furrowed instantly.

"Theodore!" Sophia threw herself into his arms, sobbing like a storm. "She stole the birthday gifts you sent me! I came to talk it out, but she wouldn't give them back-and then she hit me!"

Theodore's face darkened as he turned to me. "Lillian, you've got some nerve."

I clenched my fists, my voice hoarse. "She's the one who-"

"Theodore, look at my face!" Sophia cut me off, tilting her head to show off her red cheek. "I came here in good faith to get my gifts back, and she lashed out like this. Her face? She did that to herself, tripping or whatever. It's got nothing to do with me!"

Theodore's eyes went cold. Without even letting me speak, he snapped, "Lillian, you've gone too far."

"Take her to the shrine hall. She's to kneel and reflect."

My whole body stiffened. I stared at him, disbelief choking me. "You're not even gonna ask me? You just believe her?"

Theodore's expression didn't waver. "Sophia doesn't lie."

Sophia's eyes gleamed with smug triumph, but she put on a pitiful act. "Theodore, she hit me, and you're just gonna let her off with kneeling? Are you. still soft on her?"

"Soft on her?" Theodore's brow creased. "She's nothing to me but a stranger."

His words sliced into my heart like a jagged blade.

I flashed back to a time when I'd gone out to buy him some pastries and got held up for an hour. When I got back, he was curled up in a corner, eyes red, clutching my clothes in a trashed room. The second he saw me, he broke down, wrapping his arms around me and sobbing, "Sis, I thought you left me."

I'd held him close, my heart breaking, and promised, "I'll never leave you. Never."

But now.

He called me a stranger.

A bitter laugh escaped me, and before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face.

Sophia's lips curled into a satisfied smirk. "Since you've got no feelings for her, Theodore, I want her to pay for laying a hand on me."

Theodore's gaze flickered, but he didn't stop her.

My eyes widened. Before I could react, two burly maids grabbed my right arm and twisted it hard.

Crack!

Pain exploded through me, so intense my vision went black. Cold sweat poured down my face as I gasped.

I looked at Theodore, trembling, but his face was stone-cold, like none of this mattered to him.

"Take her to the shrine hall," he said flatly. "She doesn't leave until I say so."

They dragged me to the shrine hall, my right arm throbbing, numb from the pain. I knelt on the icy floor, staring at the ancestral tablets, a hollow laugh bubbling up as my heart ached.

The Theodore who'd cook me longevity noodles, who'd cling to me and whine like a pup-he was gone for good.

The shrine hall was pitch black. My knees went numb, my vision swimming as the pain in my arm screamed. I bit my lip, refusing to make a sound, even as the agony nearly knocked me out.

I don't know how long I lasted before my body gave up. Everything went dark, and I collapsed onto the cold floor.