chapter 7
A month later, Lily and her mother had secured the two lead roles in my film.
The celebration dinner they threw afterward was almost unbearably cheerful.
My father didn’t want to go.
I looked at him, let my eyes turn wet, and my mother immediately forced him into a suit and marched him out the door.
Damian came too, because I hooked my arm through his and refused to let go.
Lily’s mother was dressed like she had personally declared war on aging and intended to win. Lily herself sat down beside me with a smile full of poison.
“Bet you didn’t expect this,” she murmured. “My acting won Director Lee over. Even Damian agreed to cast me. At this rate, the gap between us will only grow wider. Sooner or later, you’ll still end up under my feet.”
I raised my glass.
“How exactly?” I asked. “With the same shameless tricks you’ve been using all along?”
She flushed instantly.
“You don’t get to judge me. In your last life, weren’t you the same?”
“No,” I said softly. “I resisted all the way through. You… looked like you enjoyed being admired.”
Her face twisted.
I stood and went to the restroom before she could explode.
When I came out, the hallway tilted.
The world swam.
Lily caught me with both hands and whispered against my ear, “Save your speeches. I’d like to see you talk about purity and dignity after tonight.”
My body had gone weak.
Drugged.
So she really had done it.
She half-dragged, half-guided me upstairs to a guest room on the second floor. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t make my limbs work.
Then she opened the door.
Several men slipped inside.
Director Lee was among them.
His hand lifted toward my face.
“Are you sure this is safe?” he asked Lily.
She smiled and held up her phone to record.
“After tonight, no one will protect her.”
Panic hit me cold.
Not just me, then.
My parents too.
This was bigger.
The second the men moved closer, the door exploded open.
Damian.
His eyes were red with fury.
He crossed the room in one stride and kicked Director Lee so hard he crashed into the wall. Security flooded in behind him and pinned the others down.
I lurched forward into Damian’s arms.
“Brother,” I said hoarsely, “I didn’t really drink much—”
Before I could finish, he pressed a kiss to my forehead.
Soft.
Shaking.
“Claire,” he whispered, holding me too tightly, “never do something this dangerous again. I was terrified.”
Heat rushed to my face even through the haze.
Then I remembered my father.
“Dad—”
My father’s laughter drifted in from the hall.
“I’m fine, sweetheart.”
Apparently Lily’s mother had also tried to drug him. She had even faked drinking some herself, hoping to drag him into a scandal and destroy my mother’s marriage in one move.
Instead, my mother had stormed in with people of her own, beaten the woman’s scheme into dust, and recorded a full confession.
The actress admitted everything.
She said Lily had talked her into it. That if my mother divorced my father over a ruined reputation, and if I were tainted by scandal too, public pressure could be used to drive me out of the Carter family. Lily could then slide into my place.
A perfect two-birds-one-stone plan.
If it had worked.
But it hadn’t.
They were all taken away by the police that night.
Only afterward did I learn the truth.
Damian had known about my plan.
For years, terrified something would happen to me, he had been quietly keeping an eye on everything around me. When he realized I intended to use myself as bait to draw Lily out, he told my parents.
The three of them had joined forces and set the trap with me.
My father grinned shamelessly. “When I acted reluctant earlier, that was for effect. Pretty convincing, right?”
My mother smacked his arm. “Without me covering for you, you would’ve ruined the whole thing.”
I looked at them—my ridiculous, loving family—and my throat tightened.
Then Damian, looking guilty as if he’d committed some unforgivable crime, reached out to wipe my tears.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Are you angry I was watching over you?”
I looked at him and forced a stern face.
“That depends. Confession first. How long have you known something was wrong?”
He hesitated.
“Since your eighteenth birthday.”
My heart skipped.
He lowered his eyes.
“The brooch I gave you had a listening device in it. I was worried about you going abroad alone. I wanted to protect you.”
A listening device.
So that was it.
That was why, back in that dark lounge, he had asked if I was hiding something.
My mouth went dry.
Did he know everything?
About reincarnation?
About the ugliness of my last life?
Did my parents know?
Would he look at me differently if he truly knew the filth I had survived?
As if sensing every fear racing through me, he pulled me into his arms.
“Mom and Dad only know Lily wanted to harm you,” he murmured. “Nothing else. I never told them.”
Then, very softly:
“In my eyes, you are still the purest, kindest person I’ve ever known. The only thing I regret is not finding you sooner… even if that makes no sense.”
Something inside me broke.
Of course.
Of course that was why he’d looked hurt that day in the private room. He must have thought all my closeness, all my warmth, had been fake. Strategy. Manipulation.
I grabbed his shirt and looked up at him through tears.
“Damian,” I whispered, “I really do like you. I mean it. I always wanted to be good to you.”
His arms tightened around me.
“I know,” he said.
And for the first time in all three of my lives, I cried without holding anything back.