Chapter 2
That afternoon, I followed the chef into the kitchen to make dessert.
He smiled as he handed me a piping bag.
“Ms. Duan will be very happy if she knows how much effort you put in for her.”
I glanced casually toward the surveillance camera hidden high in the corner.
Then I smiled, sweet and soft.
“I hope she likes it.”
The new girl came downstairs just then.
She walked straight toward me and stopped so close I could see her hands trembling.
“Sierra Sullivan,” she said through clenched teeth. “I despise you.”
I blinked, flour still dusting my fingertips.
“What?”
She glared at me as if I were filth.
“She forced you. She caged you. And now you love her? You’re no different from a dog that got used to being fed by its owner.”
The chef took one look at her expression and quickly slipped out of the room.
The girl lowered her eyes to the little cakes I had just finished decorating.
Then, in a burst of anger, she swept them all onto the floor.
The plates shattered.
Cream smeared across the tile.
“You’re even making sweets for her now?” she spat. “You’re humiliating every woman alive. Weak. Disgusting.”
I lowered my eyes and hid the irritation rising inside me.
Leaving aside the fact that I was acting for Dana’s benefit, even if I had truly fallen for her, the only person who had the right to despise me for that was the past version of myself.
No one else.
Dana Cenyue was cruel, powerful, and merciless.
If not for the system at my side, if not for the certainty that I could restart and try again, I would have gone mad long ago.
No outsider had the right to judge how I chose to survive.
So I only spoke softly.
“You misunderstand. Ms. Duan treats me very well.”
That made her even angrier.
She lunged as if she meant to shove me, but I stepped aside instinctively.
Instead, she twisted her ankle and fell hard to the floor.
At that same moment, footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Slow.
Heavy.
Getting closer.
I let panic flood my face instantly.
“Ms. Duan—”
Dana stopped in the kitchen doorway.
Her assistant hurried forward to help the girl up.
The girl bit her lip and looked at Dana with blazing hatred.
“You and your pet are both disgusting.”
Dana raised a brow, but her dark eyes settled on me instead.
“What happened?”
The girl turned her face away and refused to answer.
Dana’s gaze stayed fixed on me, unreadable and sharp.
I reacted without hesitation.
I walked straight into her arms.
Dana lowered her lashes, hiding whatever flickered in her eyes, then slipped one arm around my waist.
“Yuanyuan,” she murmured, lips curving faintly, “you’re getting more and more obedient.”
I lowered my voice and buried my face against her shoulder.
“The cake I made for you got ruined.”
Dana took out a handkerchief and, with maddening calm, wiped the flour from my fingers.
“What a pity.”
She did not scold the girl.
She did not even look at the ruined cake again.
Instead she said, “There’s a gala tonight. You’re coming with me.”
Then she turned toward the girl.
I stilled in Dana’s embrace.
The girl pulled at her dress and laughed bitterly.
“Isn’t Sierra usually the one who goes with you? Aren’t you afraid she’ll be jealous?”
Dana brushed a thumb over my cheek.
“She’s very well-behaved now,” she said lightly. “She won’t be upset.”
Yes, yes, exactly, I thought. Please. Take her out. Fall for her. Ignore me forever.
But on the surface, I only stayed quiet, pliant in her arms.
The girl’s expression filled with even more disgust, as if sharing the same roof with me had become unbearable.
Before she left, she looked at me and said quietly, “Watch closely. No matter how well Dana treats me, I’ll never become someone like you.”
I lowered my eyes and made myself look wounded.
Inside, I was almost glowing with joy.
Perfect.
Dana liked stubborn girls.
The harder they resisted, the more obsessed she became.
If that continued, then when I finally ran, maybe she wouldn’t come after me this time.
That evening, after they left the villa, the entire house fell silent.
For the first time in months, I felt light.
I sat in the bedroom, opened the laptop, and began searching routes, train lines, remote villages, and international flights.
I knew my passport and ID were still in Dana’s possession, so leaving the country would be difficult. But I needed options.
I had barely begun when the bedroom door opened.
My fingers froze over the keyboard.
Slowly, I turned around.
A tall figure stood in the doorway, face half-hidden in the hallway shadow.
“What are you looking at, Yuanyuan?”
My heartbeat skipped.
I snapped the laptop shut.
“Nothing. Just browsing.”
Dana crossed the room, cool fingers sliding over the side of my neck before she stroked the back of it the way one might calm a skittish pet.
I almost flinched.
To my surprise, she didn’t question me further.
“Come,” she said. “Let’s get you ready for the gala.”
A little later, servants brought in a pale, beautiful evening gown.
I said nothing.
Didn’t ask why she had returned.
Didn’t ask what happened to the other girl.
I simply changed in front of her.
I slipped out of my silk sleep dress and into the gown while Dana watched with her usual unreadable stillness.
At the end, she stepped forward and tied the ribbon at my waist herself.
This life, compared to the others, had been almost peaceful.
In the past, if she touched me, I slapped her.
If she tied my hands, I kicked her.
If she tied my feet too, I bit her.
Eventually, in those earlier lives, the only way she could hold me was to bind me entirely and lock me against her chest while I glared at her with pure hatred.
Now I let her pick me up.
I wrapped my arms around her neck and leaned into her without protest.
At the gala, Dana kept one hand at my waist the entire time.
People glanced over again and again, but no one looked shocked anymore.
By now, everyone in our circle had grown used to seeing me beside her, never more than a step away.
Then Dana’s attention shifted.
Across the ballroom, the new girl was being cornered by a group of men.
Dana’s gaze settled there for only a second before she bent close to my ear.
“Stay here and wait for me, Yuanyuan.”
Then, for the first time in a very long time, she walked away from me.
She went to protect someone else.
I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from smiling.
At last.
At last.
Nearby, a few rich young men and women began whispering.
“What’s going on? Why did Dana just leave Sierra standing there?”
“That girl’s name is Bianca Shaw. Her family went bankrupt. Sound familiar?”
“Yeah. Just like Sierra back then. And apparently Bianca’s just as stubborn.”
“I heard she fought Dana all the way here tonight. Maybe Dana brought Sierra so Bianca could see what happens eventually.”
I listened quietly, arranging my face into something fragile and wounded.
If Dana looked back and saw me too calm, she would suspect everything.
“She really fell for Dana, didn’t she?” one woman murmured. “And now Dana’s got someone new.”
“Looks that way. She’ll probably be thrown aside soon.”
“She looks miserable.”
The whispers stopped when someone stepped closer.
A young man lightly tapped my shoulder and handed me a business card.
“If Dana dumps you,” he said with open pity and a little too much amusement, “call me.”
He was enjoying this.
Offering help from a safe distance, looking down on me while pretending to be kind.
Even so, I accepted the card and smiled gratefully.
“Thank you.”
Then I lowered my voice.
“If that day really comes… will you help me leave?”
He seemed startled.
Then, awkwardly, he nodded and retreated.
At that exact moment, a sharp crash sounded from the other side of the room.
Bianca had shoved Dana away.
“Get off me!” she shouted, voice breaking. “Why are you helping me? Isn’t Sierra the one you’re supposed to care about?”
The entire room went quiet.
Dana looked down at her, expression shadowed.
This lifetime, since I had stopped fighting, Dana’s moods had stayed much steadier.
She no longer looked like a woman on the edge of madness every second of the day.
But I knew better.
That darkness was still inside her.
It had never left.
After a moment, she took Bianca’s chin between her fingers and smiled faintly.
“Yes,” she said. “Yuanyuan is much better behaved than you.”
Then she tipped her head toward me.
I walked over obediently and stopped by her side.
Bianca’s eyes reddened.
She turned to leave.
Dana caught her by the wrist.
“Why can’t you be more like her?” Dana asked coldly.
Bianca laughed, trembling with rage.
“I would rather die than become someone like that.”
A murmur ran through the room.
Someone handed Dana a glass of wine.
Bianca’s chest rose and fell sharply, then she said, “If you want me to drink, make Sierra beg me.”
The entire ballroom erupted.
I was almost impressed.
Bianca really was doing everything right.
There was no way Dana would agree to that.
No matter how interested she was, she would never humiliate me in public.
Then Dana looked at me.
“Yuanyuan.”
Her black eyes rested on me with quiet command.
For one second, I just stared.
Then joy surged through me so suddenly it nearly made me dizzy.
Dana was already this invested in Bianca?
This attached?
Then my escape plan could begin tonight.
On the surface, I lowered my gaze and forced a tremor into my voice.
“Miss Shaw,” I said softly, “please drink a little.”
Bianca looked at me with fresh contempt.
“You’ve degraded yourself this much?”
Then she slapped the wineglass from Dana’s hand.
The dark liquid splashed all over my pale gown.
I looked up immediately, careful and subtle, checking Dana’s face.
Her eyes had gone very dark.
I knew that expression.
It was how she looked when she was barely holding her temper back.
Trying to be helpful, I said gently, “She seems upset. Why don’t you go after her? I can go home by myself later.”
The second those words left my mouth, Dana’s expression turned colder still.
She touched my cheek, smiling in that soft, dangerous way of hers.
“Yuanyuan,” she murmured, “you’re so obedient now that it almost feels strange.”
I pressed my hand over hers and laughed lightly.
“What are you talking about?”
She didn’t go after Bianca.
Instead, she took me to a private lounge and had a new dress brought in for me.
My nerves tightened.
Something about this wasn’t right.
In my head, I called for the system.
“Why didn’t she go after Bianca? Bianca did everything right. Don’t tell me something’s gone wrong.”
The system tried to soothe me.
“It should be fine. This is the stage when the novelty is strongest.”
I wanted to believe that.
I really did.
So I exhaled slowly and forced myself to wait.