While I Slept Through Nights, They Raved In Flames

Chapter 3

I was ripped out of unconsciousness by the thunderous growl of a sports car engine. Blinding headlights pinned me in place. Five black Maybachs had already sealed off the dockside road, trapping me in the middle. The window of a central Pagani supercar slid down.

Richard Taylor sat behind the wheel, sunglasses on. A media kingpin who controlled nearly a third of global news flow. He had once been my closest childhood friend.

"Get in," he said flatly.

I was shaking uncontrollably from the cold, barely able to drag myself up from the ground. For a moment, I thought he had found me collapsed by the roadside. I thought he had come to take me to a hospital.

I opened the door with trembling hands and climbed into the passenger seat. Richard slammed the accelerator, and the supercar shot toward the city center. He didn't once look at me the entire ride.

"Richard, thank you," I said weakly.

"Shut up!" he snapped without looking over.

The car came to a stop at Central Square, the largest in the city. A crowd had already formed.

Richard cut the engine and pointed outside. "Look."

I followed his line of sight. On the massive hundred-meter LED screen hanging over the square, text was scrolling nonstop.

It was my last post, written two nights ago when the pain had become unbearable.

The countdown is almost over. My life has been nothing but a bad joke. So what if I'm the real heiress? They never love me anyway.

I had set it to private, visible only to myself, but now it was being broadcast across the most viewed screen in the world.

And Richard's media empire had stamped a harsh red headline over it.

"Rich Heiress Olivia Romanov Fabricates Victimhood to Win Sympathy And to Drive Her Innocent Adopted Sister Chloe Romanov to Death"

People in the square slowed their pace, pointing up at the giant screen.

"So that's the vicious real heiress Olivia Romanov?"

"I heard she faked an illness just to steal her sister's fiancé. No shame whatsoever."

"How is someone like that even still alive?"

Every word filtered through the car window and stabbed into my ears. I turned to Richard.

"This was set to private. How did you get it?" I asked.

Richard let out a cold scoff. "You don't need to know. I run a media empire. Did you really think I wouldn't notice your little tricks online? Posting something like that, full of insinuations, wasn't that just your way of getting people to dig into Chloe's past and turn the internet against her?"

He activated the high-definition dashcam. The lens locked straight onto me.

Richard pressed the mic button. "Olivia, look into the camera. Apologize to Chloe in public. Admit you posted that for attention. Admit you're jealous of her. Apologize, and I'll take the screen down. Refuse, and I'll make sure you're completely destroyed in this circle!"

I looked at Richard's face, twisted with fury. Five years ago, his racing car had skidded off a cliff and exploded in flames. I had been the one who ran straight into that firestorm, risking a secondary blast just to pull him out. That was how I ended up with a massive burn scar across my chest, something that could never be erased.

Yet during the three months I lay unconscious, Chloe had taken my necklace to the hospital, stood at his bedside, and claimed she had saved him. From that day on, Richard's life was no longer his. It belonged to Chloe.

I unfastened my coat and tugged down the collar, exposing the hideous scar beneath my collarbone.

"Richard, do you still remember what you told me in that fire?" I fixed my eyes on him.

He stiffened for a moment, his gaze flicking to my scar before quickly shifting away. "Stop trying to take credit from Chloe for saving me. That scar of yours was just a careless burn. Don't try to pin it on me."

A laugh broke out of me, tears spilling at the same time. "Yeah. Just a careless burn."

He would never believe that the woman who dragged him back from hell was me.

I looked straight into the dashcam lens. "I'm not apologizing. I'm dying anyway. Those words were just a dying person talking."

Richard struck the steering wheel with his fist. "You're hopeless! For Chloe's sake, I can destroy you. Do you understand?"

"I do." I pushed open the passenger door and tumbled out of the car, crashing hard onto the ground.

Richard's roar came from inside the vehicle. "Olivia, you ungrateful i***t! Wait to be torn apart online until you die!"

He sped off without a second glance. I forced myself up from the ground. On the giant screen, a line of red text burned into the night.

Why don't you just die?

'You don't need to rush,' I thought. 'There are still 24 hours left. I'll disappear exactly as you wish.'