Ariella opened her mouth, wanting to apologize, trying to earn a reduction on the six-month sentence.

But pride got the best of her. Rather suffer a few more months than say one soft word to that hypocrite.

"As you wish!" she ground out the words through clenched teeth.

"You don't sound thrilled. Shouldn't you be thanking me for giving you more time to make me fall for you?" Lucian lifted her chin, locking eyes with her, his gaze piercing.

Truth was, extending the deal wasn't just about wanting more time with her body - though that was part of it. What really got under his skin was how this girl had been at his side for nearly two years, and he still couldn't catch her slipping.

No way he was gonna let that stand. As the new head of the Sterling family, he couldn't lose to a rookie like her.

Lucian lived for this kind of game. His plan? Make her hate him to the core, make her fall stupid in love, and then get all her secrets.

And in the end... crush her. Make her pay for every bit of deception.

"I used to be grateful to you..." Ariella's eyes were clear, no sign of lying.

She wanted to explain herself, but only got halfway before the look in his eyes shut her up.

"Go on. Why stop now?"

"You wanted me just to satisfy your appetite, didn't you? There's no point in talking-we both know words don't mean anything between us." Her tone was flat, even a bit dismissive.

That triggered something in him. Again.

He shoved her onto the bed, hands rough as he started yanking at her thin nightgown.

Ariella grabbed his wrist tightly, panicked. "Easy! Stop tearing my clothes-I gotta pay for those."

"Oh? You broke because I didn't give you cash?" He suddenly froze, staring at her like he'd caught her red-handed.

He'd given her a card before, set a spending limit-yet she never used it. Even the slippers, towel, toothpaste, and toothbrush she used, she paid for herself.

He'd assumed she had some pride, but now... maybe not?

Ariella looked at him like he was speaking another language. Honestly, it felt like they operated in different realities. Or maybe he was just clinically insane. Guy twisted everything she said.

Her reaction made Lucian lose his cool again. This time, with a sharp tear, her nightgown went, followed by her silk underwear.

"Can we not do this tonight? I don't want Fiona to hate me," she muttered.

"You don't get to say no!"

She bit her lip hard, refusing to give in, no matter how much it hurt.

Just hold on...

She shut her eyes tight, enduring everything in silence.

When it was over, she slowly got up to take a long shower.

But before she could, Lucian zipped up and shoved her back down on the bed.

She was naked. He looked completely put-together.

The world was never fair.

Her face was flushed from their intimacy, but there was no joy in it-only misery. It annoyed him more than he expected.

He'd meant it as punishment, but seeing her that way made something twist in him. He'd wanted her to feel good in the end. Too bad she clearly didn't care.

"Was it really that awful for you? Then why try to seduce Ryan? You know the guy only thinks with what's below the belt."

"When did I ever seduce him?" she shot back, frowning.

"I saw it! Don't play with fire. Stay the hell away from him!" His voice was low and threatening.

They had a deal: during the agreement period, even holding hands with another man was off-limits-because he had a cleanliness thing.

Yet he could mess around with his wife and still treat Ariella like this? She had boundaries too!

"Don't worry," Ariella replied coolly.

"If there's nothing else, I'm taking a shower and going to bed. You can see yourself out." As she stood, he caught her and pushed her back down again.

"Let me finish, alright? Getting close to him won't do you any good. First off, the guy's a player-you don't wanna mess around and end up with something nasty. Second, sure, he's loaded, but he doesn't lift a finger for our family's businesses. He's not gonna keep up with your high-maintenance lifestyle. So..."

Before he could go on, she cut him off with an eye-roll.

"Save your breath, okay? I'm not into Sterling men, whether it's you or him. Now let me go. I've already given you what you wanted-it's my time now."

She pushed him, trying to leave, but he stayed put, still talking.

"Oh right, I forgot. You're probably still hung up on that Forrest guy? Or maybe someone else?"

"This - this has nothing to do with you." She jabbed a finger at her chest, eyes blazing.

The air went still, heavy with silence.

Only their unyielding breaths tangled in the space between them - shallow, tense, unwilling to give in.

Ariella thought the conversation was finally over. But then, his voice cut through the quiet, cold and sharp as glass.

"You think you're so pure?" he said, his tone laced with disdain.

"Your first time... was already gone when you turned eighteen."

Her whole body stiffened. She looked up at him, stunned.

"That's not true!" she shot back, her voice trembling with fury.

"I never begged you to love me, so why look for excuses to doubt me? Don't you think I'd know my own body? We met when I was twenty. How the hell would you know what happened when I was eighteen?"

"I just..." Lucian clamped his words shut midway.

One day she'd figure it out-why rush that?

He didn't even glance at her before turning on his heel and walking off.

Ariella grabbed a full set of pajamas and underwear before heading to the shower. Water trickled down, warm and steady, but her mind was stuck on his words.

She'd been in a car crash at sixteen and spent two years in a coma. If he was talking about that time, he had to be lying. Still, the unease wouldn't leave her, especially remembering how familiar he'd felt when they first met.

If that was their first meeting, then why did it feel like déjà vu?

She stayed up all night thinking, but this wasn't something she could figure out alone. So in the morning, she made up her mind-she'd go home and ask Dominic.

*****

At breakfast with her parents, things were easy and cheerful. Ever since Lucian invested in FortuneRise Inc., they'd been visibly relieved, chatting and laughing like old times.

Lucian handled everything flawlessly. Her parents never once suspected anything, thinking it was just a sound business deal, not realizing what their daughter had sacrificed.

She'd been raised like a little princess-sheltered, carefree. Until the day she overheard them saying she wasn't their biological daughter... just someone they found and took in.

Even so, they'd loved her like their own. And that's why she felt so grateful-these two people, with no blood bond, gave her everything.

Seeing them happy made her feel like what had happened last night, no matter how rough it was, had been worth it.

"Is Dylan Rivers treating you well? If anything's bothering you, just tell Dad."

"Huh? Yeah, of course! You both know how I am. If anyone's getting the short end of the stick, it's him-not me!" Ariella chuckled.

Back when Dad's factory was in trouble, he hid away and mumbled to himself about how he couldn't go on without the business-but more importantly, he worried about her, his daughter, who hadn't even gotten married yet.

So Ariella agreed to Lucian's terms. To put her parents at ease and have an excuse to move out, she staged a fake wedding. The groom? Dylan, Lucian's assistant.

"Haven't seen him in a while. Tell him to come home for dinner sometime. It's been too quiet around here!" her mom said while busying herself.

"Sure! I'll set something up soon," Ariella replied sweetly.

"You really grown up over the past couple years. Getting married really changes a person," her mom said with a smile, gently patting Ariella's head.

They chatted for a bit longer before her parents left for work. Ariella then used the landline to call Dominic, asking him to come over so they could talk.

"Hey, thanks for what you did at the wedding."

"So? Did bringing a real pregnant woman crash the wedding like I planned?" he teased.

Ariella gave a small shake of her head, sighing.

"Fiona's brain must be wired wrong or something. She didn't suspect a thing."

"So what now? Want me to come up with a way to split them up?" Dominic asked, half-joking.

She shook her head again, this time more calmly. "No... I'm letting the agreement run its course. Once it's over in a few months, I'll leave quietly."

"But that's not really why I called. I wanted to ask you about the car accident."

The second she brought it up, something shifted in Dominic's expression. Slouching lazily before, he suddenly sat up straight.

"What about the accident? You trying to hold me accountable?" he asked, quirking a brow. After all, he was behind the wheel that day.

"No, nothing like that. It's just... Some people feel oddly familiar to me. And some of my courses-I pick them up like I already knew them. Dominic, were those two years really just me lying in bed, totally unconscious?"

"Uh..." He hesitated, just enough to make her stomach twist.

"Of course you were, silly girl."

"No-you paused!"

"I'm serious, stop digging. I can't say more," he muttered awkwardly.

"Please," Ariella leaned in, practically begging. "I can't live not knowing. You've always looked out for me. Ever since we met after the accident, you've been like a real brother. Please, just tell me? I won't ask again, I promise."

She scooted closer, grabbing his arm and giving it a playful shake, eyes wide with a pleading look.

"Ugh... You always know how to twist my heart," he groaned. "Alright, I'll tell you. But you can't breathe a word of this to your parents. I promised them."

"I won't say a word. Cross my heart-this stays between us," Ariella swore with all seriousness, heart already racing with anticipation and dread.

"I don't remember everything... but I know it happened late at night."

"Wait, what? I thought it was during the day..." Ariella frowned.

"It was late at night, I remember it crystal clear. Around four years ago, I was driving past Southridge Villas and out of nowhere, you literally threw yourself in front of my car. I wanted to slam the brakes, but it was too late."

Ariella was about to cut in-hadn't her accident happened six years ago?

But Dominic was already lost in the memory, so she held back and just let him go on.

"I totally freaked out. Got out of the car and saw you all covered in blood. And there was this guy next to you, yelling your name like crazy-'Ellie,' I think?"

That nickname... it felt weirdly familiar and yet distant.

"The two of us rushed you to the hospital together. Your parents showed up soon after. You were out cold for days, and only after you woke up did I finally stop panicking. But then... you started saying you got into the accident when you were sixteen. Said it happened in broad daylight near the square, that the sun was in your eyes and you didn't see the car coming.

"The guy who was with you that night? He vanished. Didn't leave a name or anything. Later your mom told me they wouldn't blame me. But she did ask me to go along with their story-that you'd had the accident two years earlier, when you were sixteen, and had been in a coma since. She said it was better that way. That remembering the truth might mess you up mentally."

Ariella had hoped to finally get some answers. Instead, the more she learned, the more confused she felt.

"Dominic, then why do I still remember walking near the square, squinting from the sunlight, and your car speeding toward me?"

"I-I don't know. Maybe the crash scrambled some of your memory?"

That one sentence hit her like a ton of bricks.

No wonder she always felt like something was missing-her head full of broken fragments she couldn't quite piece together.

Turns out, she only remembered everything up to sixteen. Everything between sixteen and eighteen, right before that accident-it was just... gone.

What really happened during that time? What could've been so traumatic that people feared she'd break if she remembered? And that guy from back then-who was he?

Lucian had once told her she wasn't a virgin when she turned eighteen. What did that mean? Could the vanished man have been... him?

"You think... it could've been Lucian?" she kept her voice low.

"Could it?" Dominic shot the question right back.

"C'mon, I'm asking you!"

"How would I know? I've never even seen the guy before. Got a pic of him?"

"Nope. I'll describe him to you-he's super tall, like six foot one. Really handsome. His eyebrows are thick, super masculine. And his eyes, they kinda have this mixed-race look? Every time he stares at someone, it's like... he's seeing straight through you. His lips... Hey! Why are you laughing?" Ariella paused, realizing midway she sounded totally smitten despite always insisting she wasn't into him. Her face instantly flushed red.