Sunflowers Uprooted, Love Dissected

After being locked in the bedroom for a week, the last person I expected to see was Cece.

Around her neck hung the diamond necklace Ian had bid for me at an auction. She was wearing his favorite black shirt.

When she saw me, she laid out tabloid photos from the past few days and flipped through them one by one, like a victor flaunting her spoils.

“Open your eyes and take a good look. Ian only pursued you back then because he was looking for something new. Did you really think you could walk all over me just because you had the title of Mrs. Tost? In the end, I only have to lift a finger, and he would give me whatever I want, including your family’s lives!”

Her smug tone snapped the last thread of my restraint. I slapped her.

As she fell with the force of the blow, the bedroom door creaked open.

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked pitifully at Ian with the red mark on her cheek stark against her skin. “Ian, I was only trying to tell her not to defy you anymore, to apologize to you, but she…”

My eyes burned bright with fury. As Ian walked toward me, I started to wonder what might come next. When Cece got injured last time, Ian had destroyed my family. What price would I be made to pay after slapping her?

However, the punishment I expected never came. Ian just wrapped his arms around me forcefully with a manic urgency, as if trying to fuse me into his chest.

His lips brushed against my hair again and again. His voice was trembling as he said, “Mira, you’re jealous. That means you still love me, right?”

The disbelief in Cece’s eyes made me smile, even as tears streaked down my face.

Ian thought he had me completely under his control, but not my heart.

When I saw the ecstatic look on his face at the feel of my arms circling him back, an idea for the perfect revenge took root in my mind.

A few days later, I sent a message to that person.

[Stage an accident for me. I want to fake my death and get out of this.]

In the days that followed, I watched indifferently as Ian showered me with his full attention and went out of his way to please me in every possible manner.

It was almost like five years ago, when he had done everything he could just to make me smile.

However, my heart was already consumed by hatred. I could never smile at him again.

Two days later, I was kidnapped. I was dangling from the edge of a cliff.

Ian was attending a family party with Cece when he heard the news. He went livid and mobilized every resource in Harbor City to find me.

The cold wind at the cliffside whipped at my thin dress.

When Ian finally found me, his eyes were bloodshot. His expression was raw with panic.

When the kidnappers demanded someone in exchange, he shoved Cece forward without hesitation.

So I was right. I did matter more to him than Cece did. Yet it remained a fact that he hurt my family for her!

Ian was a twisted lunatic!

He stretched out his hands cautiously. “Mira, let’s go home.”

Seeing him like that, my lips curled into a twisted smile. I took a step back.

The sheer drop yawned behind me as I stared at him with burning hatred in my eyes.

“Ian, you killed my mom and my brother. My home is gone.”

His eyes were full of pleading. “You still have me, don’t you? Isn’t that enough? We have a baby. We have a home!”

I pressed a hand on my flat stomach and stripped the bloody truth bare. “The baby’s gone. And I don’t love you anymore. I could never bring myself to give birth to my enemy’s child. Ian, it’s over between us! Meeting you was the biggest mistake of my life.”

The moment I fell from the cliff, I saw the color drain from Ian’s face.

A tear landed on my cheek as he stumbled to the edge and murmured something I could no longer hear.