On the couch, the usually cold and distant Nathan had the damp rosary beads in his grip. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Lily…"

In past messages with Sabrina, I had complained that he wouldn't even let me touch his rosary beads. But now, he let Lily defile them however she wanted.

Lily turned her head, her cheeks flushed as she huffed, "You're the worst." She then added, "Nathan, I don't want to wait anymore, okay?"

Nathan's breathing grew ragged. He chuckled deeply, and there was a burning desire in his gaze I had never seen before.

I stood at the door, a sudden chill running through me.

"Willow, how could you be into something like this?" Lily suddenly screamed and buried her face in Nathan's chest.

Nathan quickly pulled the clothes under himself to cover Lily. Then, he stood and yelled at me, "Who let you in?"

So, changing the passcode was to keep me out.

Whenever Nathan shut me out in the past, all I'd do was beg for his love. However, now that I no longer remembered how I felt about him, there was only indifference in my tone.

"I'm sorry. I should have knocked before coming into your house."

Nathan sensed something was wrong and frowned. "You were out there getting tangled up with another man, and now you're saying this isn't your home after just one morning?" He growled.

He added, "Willow, if you have so little self-respect, then maybe it's time someone taught you a proper lesson!"

As he spoke, a housekeeper came out of the room carrying a box of revealing lingerie I had once bought because of him. They were promptly thrown across the floor.

"Burn these shameful things yourself!" Nathan yelled.

Just like that, my little secret was put on full display.

Lily lifted one piece of lingerie with a finger, her expression full of disgust. "You sure are wild, Willow. Did you try something out at the hospital with Luke too?"

But I had no memory of the lingerie. Embarrassed, I denied it right away. "Please don't make things up, Lily. Those aren't mine."

Nathan grew angrier and snarled, "You're still lying?"

He had the household staff force me to my knees to face my mother's photo. He then ordered me to stay there until I admitted my mistakes and apologized for them—no matter how long it took.

I struggled to get up, but Nathan shoved me down and slammed my face to the floor.

"Nathan! We're not even related. What gives you the right to treat me like this?" I yelled.

Upon hearing that, Nathan snapped and lost all his usual calm. "Because I promised Jessica I would keep you in line!" Then, he grabbed the back of my neck and slammed my head into the floor again and again.

The thuds echoed for what felt like forever. When he finally let go, he picked Lily up and carried her upstairs.

Meanwhile, I'd hit the floor, shaking all over. The bandage on my forehead slipped off, and blood quickly soaked into the carpet.

In an instant, pieces of memory came rushing back.

At my mother's funeral that year, Nathan saw how lost I looked and pulled me into his arms. He said he would take care of me for the rest of my life, and I believed him. I just didn't realize he only meant he would be like a brother to me.

The care he once showed had now turned into anger.

In a daze, that feeling of heartbreak tore through me again.

I took off the engagement ring and tossed it onto the pile of clothing.

"Nathan, I shouldn't have clung to you," I muttered. "I won't cross that line again."

Ever since I started falling for him, I stopped calling him my brother. Using "Nate" instead of "Nathan" made me feel like we were already something more.

I told myself that if I never said what we were, nothing would stand in our way. But it turned out he just never loved me like that.

When he overheard me, Nathan stopped on the stairs.

The blood on the carpet was hard to miss. His eyes widened at the sight of it, and he rushed over to me. As he kneeled on the floor, he pulled me into his arms. He looked just as frantic as he had that day at the funeral parlor. "Willow!" he gasped.

"Willow, you sure know how to play the long game." Lily sneered.

Her mockery seemed to snap Nathan out of it. He promptly let go and threw me to the floor.

Lily then picked up the ring and slid it onto her finger. After that, she grabbed a costume from the pile and said she wanted to try it on, just to see if Nathan thought it looked good.

I closed my eyes as a sharp, stinging pain spread all over my body.

Nathan used to know I was terrified of pain. Whenever I was sick, he would never leave my side.

There was even once when I had a fever at school while he was away on a work trip. In the infirmary, I had bitten someone's hand and cried my eyes out. When Nathan heard of this, he drove three hours through the night to get to me.

"Willow, I'm here," he'd said.

Back then, I knew he would come for me, and he knew I would wait too.

Now, blood was dripping onto my lashes and slipping off.

The air felt frozen too.

Suddenly, a piece of candy landed on me. It was my favorite handmade kind.

In the past, Nathan used to buy them just to cheer me up. I never imagined he would still carry a few pieces in his pocket now.

My fingers tightened around the candy. For some reason, my eyes began to sting with tears too.

At that moment, Lily spat on the ground. The candy she had in her mouth—wet with spit—fell on my face.

"That's disgustingly sweet. Candy from the street stalls just doesn't taste like it did when we were kids," Lily said. "If it hadn't come straight from Nate's mouth, there's no way I would've eaten such things."

One of the purest memories I had was now part of their intimacy. I felt sick to my stomach.

I looked at Nathan, and his gaze started to dart around. "Go to the prayer room and repent. I'll go get you some painkillers," he said without looking me in the eye. "As long as you learn your lesson, I'll let this go."

My head suddenly cleared, and I finally realized that he had always been like this. Every time I hit rock bottom, he would carelessly show me a bit of sweetness. It was an endless cycle.

The past played clearly in my mind, but I watched the story that used to be mine like a passerby. I felt nothing at all.

When I was back in my bedroom, I took our photo off the wall. I tossed it into the box along with the prayer journal where I had written the same prayer for him a thousand times.

Before I could finish packing, the prayer journal was soaked through with a cup of water.

Just then, I looked up and saw Lily standing there, holding the painkillers with a mocking smile.

"Nate said he never did it with you despite you wearing those outfits. Plus, you still had the nerve to come back?" Lily sneered. "Don't tell me you actually plan on coming to our wedding."

As she spoke, she grabbed the photo of me and my mother and tore it to pieces. "Jessica was just as cheap as you," Lily said. "She burned herself alive just to marry you into a rich family. She really was just trash."

I was stunned by how well she had faked her kindness at the hospital, but my fury was quickly drowned out from the shock of it all.

I slapped her hard across the face.

I don't remember how much I'd used to love Nathan, but I knew my mother had no selfish intentions when she saved him.

Lily refused to back down too and yanked my hair.

In the struggle, we knocked over the scented candle on the table, and the room went up in flames.

The fire alarms blared, and Nathan burst through the door. His gaze fell on me, but he quickly looked away.

"Nate, Willow said she would kill me and take my place as your wife!" Lily lied.

I clutched the shredded photo of me and my mother and screamed, "Shut up! Both of you make me sick! I used to be stupid, but I don't care about marrying you now!"

Nathan frowned deeply, and a wave of fury flashed in his eyes. He said through gritted teeth, "Are you that disgusted to be my wife?" There wasn't a trace of love for him in my eyes.

At that moment, I just wanted to escape. However, Nathan grabbed my arm and shoved me right into the fire.

"If Jessica knew you used fire to hurt someone, she would regret ever having you!" Nathan roared.

Gradually, smoke filled my lungs. From the floor, I used the last of my strength to grab Nathan's leg. I screamed, "After all these years, don't you know fires are my biggest fear?"

Then, everything went black, and I passed out completely.

…

When I opened my eyes again, only Sabrina was at my hospital bedside.

"Nathan went to handle your discharge. I've never seen him this worried about you," she said. "He even placed the rosary around your wrist, saying it would protect you for life."

I looked down to see a rosary around my wrist, its medallion only half of a whole.

Last month, Nathan had brought it back from a spiritual retreat and kept it in the prayer room like it was a sacred keepsake.

But now, all I could think about was getting away before he tried to discipline me again.

When I went out to the hallway, I saw Nathan holding Lily in his arms as he went over her condition with the doctor again and again. On the cuff of her hospital gown hung the rosary Nathan had kept on him for the past ten years.

I quietly laughed. It was fortunate that I didn't remember how much I used to love him.

Just then, Sabrina texted me. She had already arranged the wedding gift she planned to give Nathan for me.

…

This time, I felt no hesitation as I made my way to my mother's resting place.

I had hoped to retrieve some of her belongings the day before, but everything had been destroyed in the fire.

All I could do now was to move her ashes to Hasson. After marrying Luke, I would be able to visit her more often.

As I was coming down the hill with the urn in my arms, I unexpectedly ran into Lily.