"Unless you clarify the situation on a live stream, you will never see that data again."

After a grueling standoff, Seraphina finally closed her eyes in despair. Her voice was calm, yet it teetered on the edge of a breakdown.

"Fine. I’ll do it."

The live stream started shortly after. With a mask-like expression, Seraphina addressed millions of viewers. she omitted Clarissa’s provocation and took all the blame upon herself.

Instantly, she became a target. The screen was flooded with vicious insults, and many viewers began personal attacks against her.

Once it was over, Seraphina turned to Julian mechanically. "Give me the data."

Just then, Julian’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and answered. Clarissa’s cheerful voice came through the speaker.

"Baby, what was that research file on your computer? I accidentally deleted it. What should I do?"

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was perfectly clear to both people in the room.

Seraphina went still. She watched Julian as he replied.

"It’s fine. It was just some irrelevant files. Don't worry about it."

As he hung up, Seraphina knew exactly what had happened. In that instant, the rage boiling in her chest erupted like lava, incinerating her last shred of reason.

She couldn't hold back anymore. She raised her uninjured hand and struck him across the face with all her might.

"That slap," she breathed, "is for your failure to control your woman."

Before the bodyguards could seize her, she struck him again.

"And that one is for the millions of Alzheimer's patients whose treatment you have just delayed."

Julian clutched his face, his heart racing. A faint, fleeting look of guilt crossed his eyes as he saw her utter devastation.

The punishment he had intended to dish out died in his throat, replaced by a muttered, "Forget it."

"As compensation, I’ll donate fifty million to your project. If it's not enough, come to me."

As he finished, his phone rang again. It was Clarissa, claiming she didn't feel well and asking him to come home.

Julian didn't hesitate. Without another look at Seraphina, he turned and left the room.

Once he was truly gone, Seraphina pulled the covers over her head, curled into a ball, and sobbed.

Even though she had decided to leave him and stop trying to win him back, every time she saw his concern for Clarissa, every time she saw their intimacy, her heart would seize with a pain like a serrated blade.

The pain didn't fade with time. Instead, it slowly turned into a dull, numbing ache, until finally, there was only silence.

Chapter 4

In the days that followed, Seraphina avoided all contact with him. She stayed indoors, splitting her time between working with technicians to recover the deleted data and going home to spend time with her mother.

The days passed in a blur of routine, so quiet that she almost forgot Julian existed.

Until the day she received an invitation to Julian and Clarissa’s engagement party.

She knew Julian had sent it personally to ensure she finally gave up.

Seraphina had no intention of going. On the day of the party, she was busy in the lab, discussing the preliminary results of a genetic testing analysis with her team.

Halfway through the meeting, a security guard rushed in, looking frantic.

"Dr. Vance, someone is outside for you. They say..."

Before he could finish, Julian marched in with a squad of bodyguards, surrounding the laboratory.

The team members, never having seen such a display, backed away in shock.

An aura of lethal coldness radiated from Julian. Under the stunned gazes of everyone in the room, he walked straight up to Seraphina. He grabbed her by the throat, his voice low and filled with a violent, destructive rage.

"Seraphina Vance, who gave you the gall to do that to Clara?"

The team members tried to step forward to stop him, but they were blocked by the wall of bodyguards.

"Who else but you would have the motive to broadcast Clara’s private photos at the engagement party? You wanted to ruin her so I’d crawl back to you, didn't you?"

He let go of her neck and threw her violently to the floor. Without asking a single question, he turned to his men, his eyes looking as if they wanted to tear her apart.

"Strip her. Every last piece of clothing. She’s going to atone to Clara for what she did!"

The bodyguards moved in, pinning the struggling Seraphina down and roughly tearing at her white lab coat. Julian watched it all with cold indifference.

"I didn't do it! I’ve been in the lab all day. I haven't even stepped outside!"

Her explanation was swallowed by the chaos. Julian had no intention of listening.

The men were strong. Soon, she was down to her last layer of undergarments.

A few team members tried to call the police, but their phones were snatched and smashed onto the floor.

Julian only repeated one thing, his gaze sweeping over Seraphina with chilling finality: "This is her punishment."

Shame and despair flooded her like a rising tide. As the last layer was about to be torn away, Seraphina bit her lip and found a sudden, desperate surge of strength. She wrenched herself free and grabbed a nearby scalpel. Before anyone could react, she pressed the blade against Julian’s throat.

"You say I did it. Where is the evidence?" Seraphina’s eyes were bloodshot, her hand trembling as she held the blade. "Until you show me proof, you have no right to treat me this way."

To her horror, Julian ignored the blade at his neck, even as a thin line of blood appeared. He looked at her denial with a calm that was bordering on psychopathic.

"Evidence? I don't need it. Clara wouldn't lie to me. If she says you did it, you did it. What are you waiting for? Ignore me and grab her! There’s a massive reward for whoever catches her."

Every word was a poisoned needle driven into her already numb heart.

His prejudice was absolute, born simply from the fact that Clarissa was the only person who mattered to him now.

In the split second Seraphina faltered, the trained bodyguards saw their opening. They lunged and pinned her down.

"Since you refuse to admit your mistake, fine. You can go and atone for your sins in Clara’s place."

Seraphina soon learned exactly what he meant by "atonement."

The next few days were a living hell.

She was committed to a psychiatric hospital.

The facility was located in a remote mountain area with no signal, surrounded by vast forests. At night, the silence was terrifying.

Because of Julian’s influence, the doctors and nurses gave her "special attention."

The nurses "cared" for her by scheduling countless rounds of electroconvulsive therapy, claiming it was Julian’s orders. Her fellow patients beat her, leaving her body covered in bruises. They even went so far as to deliberately stomp on her newly healed hand...

Seraphina huddled in a corner of her drafty room, her knees pulled to her chest. Her scars were raw, turning shades of blue and purple. The winter wind whistling through the cracks in the walls made her shiver uncontrollably.

Finally, she couldn't take any more and collapsed into unconsciousness.

When she woke up, it was to the sound of a news broadcast on a television nearby.

"...The two great families of Seattle... Sterling and Thorne... will be wed on the eighth of next month..."

The words pieced together a complete sentence. Seraphina forced her eyes open and looked at the screen, where the two were shown with their fingers intertwined. For the first time, a faint, pale, yet utterly relieved smile touched her lips.

Her heart would never ache for Julian Sterling again.

Like the thick snow weighing down the plum blossoms in the courtyard, her past passion and love were now buried deep beneath the ice.

Chapter 5

When consciousness returned, Seraphina opened her eyes and was startled by the man sitting beside her.

"Dr... Dr. Miller?"

The white-haired director of her former hospital looked at her frail form and sighed.

"If that psychiatric facility hadn't happened to be under my jurisdiction, I hate to think what would have happened to you. Don't worry, the nurses and doctors who were bribed have all been fired."

Seraphina’s eyes welled with tears. "Thank you, Dr. Miller," she rasped. "You’ve looked after me since I was an intern. I’m sorry to still be a burden to you."

They spoke for a while. Eventually, Dr. Miller observed her expression and pulled out a file. He spoke tentatively.

"Julian’s primary personality... it might not be dead. I’ve been looking into his medical records and the methods Clarissa used. After researching all the relevant papers, I’ve found that his primary self is likely just hidden. It might be possible to trigger it with a specific external stimulus."

He knew everything about Seraphina and Julian’s past. He felt for her, but he was also wary of Julian’s power.