"Sophie! What are you doing?!"

William rushed over in a panic and pushed Sophie aside. Dropping to his knees, he anxiously checked Lily's injuries.

Sobbing, Lily extended her ring finger, which bore the unmistakable signs of being pulled—marked by a deep red laceration.

"I did what you asked. I apologized to Sophie, but she lost it when she saw the ring. She insisted I take it off and tried to snatch it from my finger when I refused!

"I know I have a bad temper, but you know I'd never lie, right? I just don't understand… Why would Sophie do something like that after I apologized?"

Lily bit her lip, struggling to hold back her tears, stubborn yet delicate.

Heartbroken, William gently stroked Lily's head and wiped away her tears. "It's all right, Lily. I'll take you to the hospital—or anywhere you need to go. I'll do whatever it takes."

Lily's eyes brightened. "Really?"

"Of course!"

William turned to Sophie with a cold expression. "Since when did you become so violent? I gave Lily her ring. If you're upset, you should be angry with me, not her! Besides, don't you also have a ring?"

William glanced at Sophie's ring finger, only to find it empty.

Confused, he raised his voice rose slightly. "Where's your ring?"

Sophie sneered. 'I see… So I should wear my ring to show others…'

Four years ago, William had carefully placed the ring on Sophie's finger.

Even his usually composed demeanor had softened into a smile as he vowed to dedicate his life to her, declaring she was his only fiancée.

At that moment, Sophie had fallen deeply in love with him, thinking they would live happily ever after.

But four years later, she had endured rumors that she was only marrying into the Lockes for their wealth, not to mention the insults from William's own nanny.

Their marriage had never been formalized.

Nonchalantly, Sophie replied, "I left it at home."

Her answer momentarily piqued William's curiosity, but it quickly shifted to anxiety as he almost lost his grip on Lily, who would have fallen.

He remembered the time when Sophie lost her ring while swimming. She had searched the pool for hours that night before finally finding it.

Afterward, she had cried in William's arms, promising never to take her ring off again.

'It's true I've been focused on Lily since she returned, but Sophie's always been understanding. She should know why I'm doing this, right?'

William thought back to how Sophie would always make him a warm glass of milk the morning after he had yelled at her or given her the cold shoulder.

At the thought, his gaze softened, and he said gently, "Let's go to the hospital together. You should get your face checked too."

Lily's eyes widened in shock, and she stomped her foot angrily. "William! Have you forgotten what she's done to me?!"

William found himself in a difficult position, unsure whose side to take.

Sophie needed to pick up her prescription from the hospital that afternoon, but she couldn't bear being around William and Lily any longer.

Calmly, she turned down William's offer and hailed a cab to the hospital on her own.

-

After consulting with the dermatologist, Sophie unexpectedly ran into William.

"What did the doctor say?" William asked.

He reached for Sophie's mask to remove it, but she quickly evaded him.

At that moment, a nurse approached and said, "Are you Sophie Queen? The doctor mentioned you'll be leaving in two days and would only like to collect half of your prescribed medication. Is that correct?"

William's heart skipped a beat.

He grabbed Sophie's hand, his gentlemanly demeanor replaced with urgency as he shouted across the hallway, "You're leaving? Where are you going?!"

Sophie smiled and tried to pull her hand from his grip. "I'm going with the dance troupe for a show."

William let out a sigh of relief, but his anxiety lingered. "How long will you be gone? Where are you going? We can't keep delaying our marriage, you know?"

'He still remembers we haven't gotten married,' Sophie thought with a sarcastic smile.

"We'll be performing in a small town for a few days," she replied.

William paused to think, checking his schedule. "I'll come with you. I don't have anything else planned for the next two days."

Sophie frowned, impatience creeping into her voice. "You don't need to. It wouldn't be convenient for you to come with us."

"I won't be in your way. Just do what you need to do."

William was determined to accompany Sophie, and he was never one to take no for an answer.

Sophie knew that he would insist even more if she refused.

After a moment of thought, she came up with an idea. "Lily's competition is in two days, right? Aren't you going to go?

"You should bring her with you next time we go out. Otherwise, she'll just give me an earful."

As expected, William fell silent for a moment before nodding with a faint smile. "You're right. I should accompany Lily. We'll have plenty of chances to spend time together in the future."

After that, William drove Sophie home before returning to his room to work.

Meanwhile, Sophie's phone rang with a text message from Alena.

Alena: [I'm sorry to ask, but you're the most flexible and adaptable performer I know. I promised someone I'd perform with them, but I injured my leg. Would you be able to perform on my behalf? Or, if you're busy, you could have one of your girls perform instead.]

Sophie stared at her phone, lips pressed together.

She didn't want to get involved with anything right before her trip. Yet Alena had been her mentor for so long, charging Sophie only half of her usual fee due to her family's financial struggles.

After a moment's consideration, Sophie decided to perform on Alena's behalf as a way to repay her kindness.

Shortly after sending her response, Lily knocked on her door.

"Hi Sophie. Alena originally promised she would perform with me at my next competition, but she accidentally injured her foot and asked you to perform for her instead."

Lily deliberately paused mid-sentence.

Sophie was shocked, only just realizing that the person Alena had mentioned was Lily.

However, Sophie couldn't muster a friendly act, nor did she want to waste any time on Lily. "I'm busy."

Seeing Sophie's cold response and noticing that she was about to close the door, Lily quickly stopped her and dropped her goody-two-shoes act.

"You can't back out! You've already promised her!" Lily snapped.

"We don't have the right synergy, so we wouldn't perform well together. More importantly, I'll be busy that day, and I'll have one of my apprentices replace me," Sophie retorted.

Lily sneered, her disdain evident as she asked, "Are you afraid?"

At that moment, William appeared after hearing the commotion.

Lily immediately switched back to her pitiful persona, pursing her lips and clutching the edge of her dress.

"William! Sophie and her dance troupe are trying to go against our agreement and won't dance with me during my performance.

"What am I supposed to do? My competition is just three days away, and I'll definitely lose if I don't have a partner to dance with.

"All of my efforts over the past five years will be wasted! I'd rather die than let that happen…"

Suddenly, Lily began to convulse, her hands clenching together and her pupils dilating.

Panicked, William quickly held Lily in his arms and fumbled for the medicine he always carried to help her. "Lily! Lily! Stay with me!"

Without getting to the bottom of the situation, William stood up and shouted, "Don't you know Lily suffers from severe anxiety? Why won't you perform with her? What's the point of doing all those stretches every day if you're not going to dance?

"You'd better hope Lily's okay, or I promise I'll make sure your dance troupe never performs again!

"I'll crush your dreams because of your selfishness!"

Sophie stood frozen, momentarily dazed as she looked at William's cruel expression.

William knew all too well that the children in her dance troupe came from ordinary families, and that they trained tirelessly—sometimes until their feet bled—just for a chance to perform.

In the past, William had always tended to Sophie's wounds whenever she was injured during training. He would even hold her in his arms and comfort her, saying he would help the children in her troupe.

Now, thanks to Lily's manipulation, he was willing to crush the very dream Sophie had cherished for over 20 years.

He was ready to destroy the lives of more than 30 children in the dance troupe just to make Lily happy!

Lily couldn't suppress a snicker when she saw how pale Sophie had become. She curled up in William's embrace, laughing and sticking her tongue out at Sophie.

As if that weren't enough, Lily even gave Sophie the finger.

After a while, Sophie's vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes.

With a hoarse voice, she struggled to speak. "Fine, I'll be Lily's dance companion. Just leave my dance troupe alone..."

Sophie and Lily were the only two in the practice room.

Lily was playing the piano so aggressively that it produced an unpleasant buzzing sound. Stomping her foot as she stood up, she hurled a thick chunk of piano sheet music at Sophie.

"Your rhythm's off again! Are you sure you're as good a dancer as they say?"

Sophie hissed in pain and covered her bruised forehead.

She gave Lily a cold stare. "That's it! I've had enough of you!"

Lily wasn't actually complaining about Sophie's rhythm, but about her irregular movements. She would even accuse Sophie of being lazy if the latter needed to drink some water during breaks.

What was worse, Lily would sometimes whip Sophie with a cane on purpose.

One day, Lily deliberately threw away the warm water Sophie had brought in a thermos while Sophie was on her period.

When Lily saw that Sophie was in pain, she fetched a bucket of cold water from the washroom and poured it all over her.

Gleefully, Lily claimed she was only trying to help Sophie stay awake.

Now, Lily didn't seem affected by Sophie's retort. In fact, she seemed to take pride in what she had done, leaning in closer to Sophie.

Blinking her eyes like an innocent girl, she asked, "What's the matter? Are you angry at me?"

Sophie sneered and pushed her away. "You're not actually as good a pianist as they say, are you?"

Sophie had known from the moment she agreed to be Lily's dance partner that things would be difficult. Thus, she had memorized the piano sheet music and its rhythm by heart.

She had also watched many of Lily's performances in past competitions to study her playstyle.

In truth, Lily's rhythm had been far more sluggish and inelegant in recent days compared to her usual performances.

Sophie's rhythm wasn't off—Lily's was.

"Don't you dare blame me when you're the one who's dancing terribly!"

Lily pretended to be calm, but the brief change in her expression betrayed her.

'It's true I had someone else perform for me during my competitions, but I've been very careful. There's no way she knows about that!' Lily thought.

William could sense the tension as soon as he entered the practice room. "What's the matter?"

He seemed concerned when he saw that Lily was in a bad mood and quickly approached her. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Lily's heart raced. She was terrified that Sophie would expose her actions, and her hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Suppressing her anxiety, she noticed how worried William seemed and forced out some tears to appear pitiful.

"I'm okay. Sophie accused me of not being a good pianist because she can't keep up with the rhythm. I threw my piano sheet at her because I was so angry…" she replied. "You don't think it's my fault, do you?"

As expected, William noticed the bruise on Sophie's head and seemed sorry for her.

As he reached out to caress the bruise, he suddenly recalled Sophie's accusation and slowly retracted his hand.

Seeing this, Lily covered her face and made herself appear even more miserable.

Through sobs, she said, "I couldn't stand her accusing me of something so outrageous… Do you have any idea how much I had to suffer, learning to play the piano properly over the past five years away from home?

"I know Sophie dislikes me, but being a pianist is all I've got. I can't let her take that away from me."

William frowned and began to scold Sophie. "You shouldn't have said that to her, Sophie. I know Lily can be straightforward, but there's no way she would pretend to be a good pianist."

Lily froze for a moment upon hearing this but awkwardly laughed it off.

Meanwhile, Sophie sneered, wondering if William would still defend Lily if he knew her piano skills were nowhere near as impressive as they had been during her competition performances.

She looked at Lily with a smirk. "Is that so?"

Sensing the threat in Sophie's tone, Lily clenched her fists and shot her a dangerous glare.

Yet William remained oblivious to the change in Lily's expression.

'I've spent so many years reaching this point to gain Father and Mother's approval. I won't let Sophie ruin it all! I won't!'

At that moment, an idea sparked in Lily's mind.