The moment he said Barlow Hollow, my whole body betrayed me.
I was back there again.
Back in that windowless room.
Back in those endless nights.
Back with iron chains, electric shocks, shouted orders, footsteps outside the door.
I lurched forward and began pounding on the door with both hands.
“I’ll divorce you!” I screamed until my voice shredded. “I’ll sign anything! I don’t want to go back there! Please—I’ll leave, just don’t send me back!”
I didn’t know how long I cried.
Long enough for old wounds to split open across my palms.
Long enough for my throat to burn raw.
Long enough for the countdown to slip from ten hours to a little over eight.
When the door finally opened, I was sprawled on the floor in a tangle of hair and shaking limbs.
Marcus stood there.
For one fleeting second, something like panic flashed across his face.
Then he saw my tears.
And whatever softness had appeared vanished instantly.
“You’ve been back one day and you’re already causing chaos,” he said. “Can’t you act like a normal person for once?”
He sounded irritated. Cold. Almost bored.
This was the same man who had once carried me on his shoulders so I could watch fireworks over the bay.
The same man who had shielded me from thunderstorms when I was little because I was scared of lightning.
The same man who had told half the city that anyone who touched me was asking to die.
Now he looked at me like I was filth on the floor.
He shoved me impatiently.
I was so weak that I fell at once, my prosthetic leg slipping under me. Pain shot through my hip as I hit the ground.
Marcus froze.
Just for a second.
Then a mocking smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Still pretending?” he asked. “What now? You want me to feel sorry for you and let you out?”
My heart clenched so hard it almost folded in on itself.
He had raised me.
My mother died when I was born. My father followed not long after. Marcus, ten years older than me, had become everything at once—guardian, brother, family, home.
In my original world, I had been alone from the beginning.
No parents. No siblings. No one who would come if I cried.
So when the system first appeared and told me my mission was to save three future villains from destroying themselves and everyone around them, I said yes without hesitation.
I got close to Nathaniel when he was still ruthless and unreachable.
I pulled Julian out of a blood-soaked warehouse when he was just a starving boy with haunted eyes.
And Marcus had watched it all, indulgent and amused, telling them both that if they were wise, they’d treat me like a princess.
In the end, I succeeded.
They softened.
They changed.
And when the system offered me a chance to return to my original world, I gave it up.
I stayed.
I stayed for them.
Then Marcus brought Seraphina home.
My father’s illegitimate daughter.
My half-sister.
I still remembered how he held me that night and spoke with absolute certainty.
“She’s your sister, Ava. We can’t just leave her out there alone.”
Ava.
That was the name they had all once spoken like it was something precious.
Marcus had kissed my hair and sworn, “I’m only giving her a place to stay. That’s all. No one will ever take your place.”
I believed him.
That was my mistake.
Seraphina was never satisfied with a room in the house.
She wanted everything.
Every glance.
Every kindness.
Every scrap of love.
And slowly, impossibly, she took it all.