When my father's business collapsed, he racked up an astronomical debt to the Andor family.

And when they finally came knocking, he did what no loving parent should ever do—he collateralized me, his only daughter, handing me over to Cassian before vanishing off the face of the earth.

For ten long years, I stayed by Cassian Andor's side. He treated me with a tenderness so indulgent it bordered on worship. There was nothing I asked for that he would not give; there was no whim of mine he would not entertain. Everyone in our world knew me as his princess.

I grew up believing with certainty that once I came of age, he would sweep me into his arms, march me down the aisle, and make me his wife.

But reality—cold, brutal, and as dazzlingly cruel as the world we lived in—had other plans.

Instead of the ring I had dreamed of, Cassian gifted a breathtaking pink diamond—the very symbol of eternal devotion—to his assistant, Heidi Torres.

As if that wasn't betrayal enough, he threw a lavish celebration in her honor, a veritable explosion of flowers.

He knew I was deathly allergic to pollen. Yet he still left me stranded there, drowning in a sea of blossoms. Eventually, I collapsed in a violent asthma attack, gasping and clawing for air, teetering on the edge of consciousness.

And Cassian? He merely tightened his hold around Heidi in his arms and cast me a cold glance.

"Your allergies have been fine for ages," he said with a sneer. "Why the sudden drama today? Don't tell me you're faking it."

At that moment, as I lay there humiliated and struggling to breathe, I realized there were exactly seven days left until my twentieth birthday since when I could register a marriage.

When I returned home from the hospital, the first thing I saw was Cassian Andor sprawled out on the sofa, his shirt rumpled.

Even the faintest sound of my entrance stirred him. He cracked open one eye, and when he saw it was me, he immediately sat up, his expression darkening.

"Zora," he barked, "your little performance at the party tonight was disgraceful!"

He sneered, rising to his feet as he continued his tirade. "Heidi has been doing exceptionally well at work lately. Everything you saw tonight—every gift, every flower, every celebration—was simply my way of rewarding her. And yet, you couldn't even hide your jealousy?

"You've learned a few tricks, haven't you? Staging a scene just to get my attention? Did it ever occur to you that your little stunt would make Heidi feel guilty? She's always been so soft-hearted."

I stood there, head bowed, clutching the hem of my jacket so tightly my knuckles turned white.

I had always suffered from allergic asthma.

Ten years ago, when I first moved into the Andor household, Cassian had reacted as though the sky were falling the moment he learned about my condition. He ordered the butler to conduct an immediate overhaul of the entire house—no dust, no pollen, nothing that could even remotely trigger an attack.

He didn't stop there. He hunted down the best doctors, pored over the most prestigious medical journals, all to find a cure that would set me free.

He once told me that even if he wasn't there to watch over me, he wanted to know I would be safe.

Thanks to his relentless efforts, my asthma hadn't flared up in years.

For a full decade, I had been the world's most envied darling, the little princess he openly spoiled and held proudly in his arms.

Everyone knew I was his weakness, the one he would do anything for.

But ever since Heidi Torres appeared, he had conveniently forgotten all of that.

The sight of me gasping for air, doubled over in pain at tonight's party, was nothing more to him than an embarrassing display of petty rivalry.

My nose stung. Tears blurred my vision.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Cassian," I whispered, my voice trembling. "It was wrong of me to embarrass Heidi. It won't happen again."

The address—Uncle Cassian—made him freeze for a fraction of a second. It had been so long since I last called him that.

I was ten years old when my world split into a before and an after. Before that, life had been modest but warm, wrapped in the comforting embrace of my parents' love. Then my mother died of illness. My father's business crumbled. And just like that, we owed an unfathomable debt to the Andor family.

Cassian had come to collect.

I could still remember the scene vividly—my father pushing me towards him without a shred of hesitation.

"Mr. Andor," he said with a forced smile, "I'll leave my daughter with you as collateral. Once I earn enough, I'll come back and redeem her. Surely you can trust me not to run now?"

But of course, my father did exactly that. He vanished without a trace, leaving me alone to fend for myself in the Andor family.

Oddly enough, the man who had once seemed so menacing softened almost overnight. He tried everything—every toy, every sweet word, every carefully orchestrated kindness—to coax the scared, skinny little girl into smiling again.

He enrolled me in the finest schools, dressed me in designer clothes, and showered me with gifts that made the other children gape in envy.

When I fell sick, he stayed up through the night nursing me back to health. When I cried, he sat beside me and cried too. When I laughed, he laughed even louder.

Slowly, the walls I had built around my heart crumbled. I stopped fearing him. I started clinging to him, teasing him, laughing with him.

"Uncle Cassian," I once declared boldly, "when I grow up, I'm going to marry you!"

He had chuckled awkwardly, ruffling my hair. "You want to marry me, Zora?"

"Of course!" I beamed. "You just wait until I'm twenty. Then we can get a marriage license!"

He smiled then, a tender look in his eyes.

"But Zora," he said gently, "if you really want to marry me, you'll have to stop calling me 'Uncle Cassian.'"

I had engraved those words into my heart. And so, starting from my seventeenth birthday, I never called him that again.

I had spent every day since counting down to my twentieth birthday, dreaming of the day when he would finally, finally be mine.

But now, with that milestone just days away, my dreams had withered away, shriveled and frozen into something cold and brittle.

The princess once cradled so dearly in Cassian's palm had lost her castle—and her crown.

Maybe it was finally time to make a different choice.

Curled up on the plush carpet, I hugged my knees to my chest, numb fingers mindlessly scrolling through my phone.

And that was when I stumbled upon Heidi's latest post.

She had just shared a picture of the "Only Star in the Galaxy"—a pink diamond so rare and dazzling it looked as if it had been plucked straight from the heavens.

I still remembered how Cassian had fought tooth and nail for that diamond at the auction, going back and forth with rival bidders for dozens of rounds before finally winning it.

Everyone had assumed, without a shadow of doubt, that he had bought it for me.

But now, that very same diamond was perched prettily on Heidi's delicate hand.

The caption beneath the photo read: [Who says a fleeting moment of brilliance can't rival a lifetime of companionship? Grateful to God for letting me meet you.]

Fleeting moment of brilliance. Lifetime of companionship.

I stared at the words, feeling the sting in their hidden meanings.

Without thinking, I clicked open my chat with Richard Henderson. Our conversation was still frozen on the last message he had sent—the one where he had confessed his feelings, asking if I would be his girlfriend.

Slowly and deliberately, I typed a reply: [Okay. I accept.]

Almost immediately, a message bounced back: [Changed your mind?]

Once upon a time, my heart had been so tiny, so narrow, it could hold only one person. Now it was vast and hollow, and yet, no one seemed able to fill it.

If that was the case, why not give Richard and myself a chance?

The next morning, I submitted my application for the overseas exchange program without a second thought.

And I made another decision: I would move back into the school dormitory.

I returned home to pack a few of my things, expecting a quiet, uneventful visit. Instead, the moment I pushed open the door, I was greeted by the sight of Heidi standing in the kitchen, casually stirring something over the stove.

She wore a flimsy, provocative camisole dress, and in one hand she held a tablet, watching something with leisurely amusement.

Something about the tablet caught my eye—it looked alarmingly familiar.

It was mine.

She was flipping through it with complete disregard, a smirk playing at the corners of her mouth every so often, as if mocking what she saw.

"Give it back!" I cried, rushing forward in a panic, reaching out to snatch it from her.

That tablet had no password. It contained important files, countless photos, and worst of all—my personal diaries, chronicling years of memories with Cassian, all the private little confessions and foolish daydreams I had never dared to say out loud.

They were all exposed now. Violated.

Heidi, quick and agile, easily dodged my grasp. Then, without so much as a second's hesitation, she hurled the entire tablet into the bubbling pot on the stove.

The scalding broth swallowed the device whole. Within seconds, the screen flickered once—then went black.

Frantic, I plunged my hand into the boiling liquid, but the searing heat burned my skin instantly, leaving an angry, red welt across the back of my hand.

Blinded by rage, I turned and slapped her—hard.

Heidi stumbled back, her hand pressed against her cheek, her eyes burning with venomous hatred.

For a long moment, neither of us moved.

Then, slowly, she lowered her hand and gave a soft, derisive laugh.

"You're so in love with Cassian, aren't you?" she drawled, her voice dripping with mockery. "Too bad all your precious little fantasies will come true today, for me."

The moment she finished speaking, Heidi burst into tears once again.

I stared at her, bewildered by how fast she could change her face, as if flipping a switch. Before I could even process it, she had already dashed behind me and collapsed dramatically into the arms of the man standing there.

"Cassian," she sobbed pitifully, clutching his shirt, "I was just making soup for you, but Zora suddenly stormed in and threw her tablet into the pot! Then she slapped me!"

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hiccupped, "Cassian, why did she do that?"

My eyes widened in disbelief. How could she lie so shamelessly without even blinking?

Cassian glanced down at her tear-streaked face, his gaze lingering on the faint but unmistakable red imprint of fingers. His expression darkened. Without a moment's hesitation, he strode toward me, rage flashing in his eyes.

And then—smack!—his palm collided brutally with my face.

"You're unbelievable!" he roared. "What scheme are you trying to pull this time? Who are you trying to frame now?"

His voice grew harsher, more cutting with every word. "I've raised you for ten years—not to become someone so vicious and shameless!"

The force of his slap made me stagger backward. My vision blurred, and I had to clutch the wall just to steady myself. A sharp, metallic tang filled my mouth as blood welled up between my lips.

"Apologize to Heidi. Now!" he barked, his voice laced with fury.

Slowly, I lifted my head to look at him. "Why should I apologize?"

I wasn't the one lying. She was.

Cassian froze, clearly stunned that the usually obedient, docile me would dare to talk back.

His face twisted into a darker, more sinister expression as he sneered coldly, "Zora, you've gone too far! Have you forgotten who you are? Forgotten where you came from? You're nothing more than a piece of collateral—something your father, Patrick, used to pay off his one-million-dollar debt. That's all.

"I've been kind to you, but don't mistake kindness for indulgence. Don't you dare get ideas above your station!"

A bitter taste filled my heart, even stronger than the blood in my mouth.

Yes. Ten years had passed—and I had almost forgotten the road that brought me here.

I remembered it so clearly now: the day I moved into this house, when he had held my hand in front of all the staff and declared with such conviction, "From today on, Zora is part of this family. If I find out anyone mistreats her, they'll have me to answer to."

He had personally overseen the decorating of my bedroom, helping me pick out every piece, from the curtains to the doorknobs.

He had made sure my clothes, my meals, my daily needs were carefully tailored to my preferences.

And when a servant had secretly bullied me, he hadn't hesitated to punish them ruthlessly.

Back then, what did I mean to him? Maybe nothing more than a stray kitten that a kind-hearted young man in his twenties had decided to rescue on a whim.

But things had changed.

Now he had a new love—a new pet to fawn over. And his beloved Heidi, on her very first day in this house, had smashed the only precious thing my late mother had left me.

My mother had scrimped and saved for that little crystal globe, even choosing it over buying her own medicine, back when we had nothing left. It was the only piece of my old life that I had carried with me when I came here.

And what had Cassian said when I confronted him, desperate and heartbroken?

"Why are you acting like a crazy person over something so trivial? Where are your manners? It's just a crystal ball. Your mother's been dead for over a decade. That thing's worthless. Don't make things difficult for Heidi. If you want, I can buy you ten—hell, I can buy you a hundred."

A hundred new crystal balls.

As if they could ever replace that one.

Looking back now, I realized how foolish I had been.

I should have seen it then. I should have understood that the "Uncle Cassian" I once clung to had become a stranger—a man who no longer saw me as his princess.

I turned my gaze toward the enamel pot, where the boiling soup frothed and churned over the ruins of my tablet.

Everything I had recorded over these years—the fleeting dreams, the secret hopes, the tender memories—were dissolving into that pot of scalding broth, destined to rot away in a heap of scrap metal.