Chapter 6
982 Words
"Karen," Charles’s voice had a faint tremor in it, "what did you just throw away?"
I said flatly. "Trash."
He hurried after me and caught my wrist.
"Karen, listen to me." His breathing was uneven. "Sophia’s emotions were all over the place that day. That kiss—it was only to calm her down. I don’t want you to misunderstand."
He pulled a beige invitation from his pocket, the gold-embossed patterns catching the light.
"This is the wedding invitation. You can come. I promise—it’s just a fake ceremony. It doesn’t mean anything else."
The date printed on the card was the exact same day I was set to leave Moon Shade.
I stared at it without answering.
He mistook my silence for agreement, let out a relieved breath, and went back to his wedding preparations.
Two days later, I heard a knock at my door.
When I opened it, Sophia was standing there.
She wore a wedding dress and a ring on her finger.
"What do you want?" I frowned.
She smiled, and the look in her eyes was pure contempt. "Karen, you’re really pathetic. All I have to do is cry a little and put on a show, and your parents, your brother, your fiancé—they all stand on my side."
Her fingers toyed with the ring. "Don’t worry, though. This is just the beginning. From now on, everything that used to belong to you will be mine."
I didn’t respond. I just watched her quietly.
Her smile slowly faded as footsteps echoed down the hall.
Then, suddenly, she pulled a pair of scissors from behind her and began slicing her own dress to shreds. The ring clattered to the floor and rolled away.
She dropped to her knees and let out a wail, tears spilling on cue. Clutching the torn fabric in her arms, she sobbed, "Karen! Why are you doing this? I thought you promised you wouldn’t stand in our way anymore!"
Three seconds.
Two.
One.
The hallway exploded with noise.
"Sophia!"
"Baby, calm down, don’t cry!" Lisa rushed over and gathered her into a trembling hug.
Henry’s face was drawn tight with pain. Kane hovered just behind, murmuring comfort.
Charles shot me a look, disappointment and reproach mixed in his eyes. "Karen, I promised her this wedding. Why are you still picking fights with Sophia?"
Then he turned to Sophia, his tone shifting gentle in an instant. "Don’t cry. I’ll have a new dress made for you—one even prettier than this. We’ll replace the ring too, okay?"
They surrounded her—talking, soothing, patting her shoulders.
Not one of them looked at me again.
Sophia lifted her head, her smile soft and razor-sharp at the same time.
Her lips formed the shape of silent words. I could read them clearly: "You’ll never win."
I quietly closed my door, picked up my phone, and ordered ten barrels of gasoline and a life-sized replica corpse.
She was right—I had lost. But she wasn’t going to win either.
Because the living will never compete with the dead.
That night, I sat at my desk.
Stroke by stroke, I wrote the words "sever all blood and legal ties."
When I was done, I pressed my fingerprint beneath my name.
In that moment, the stone on my chest finally dropped away.
From this day on, I no longer belonged to Moon Shade. I no longer belonged to them.
Next, I wrote up the document severing my marriage contract. The bond that had been sealed for us at birth was no longer any of my concern.
I opened my drawer and took out a silver flash drive.
On it were videos from the prison—every lash of the whip, every command barked at me… all of it arranged by Sophia.
I copied the footage to the drive, then placed it, the annulment papers, and the document severing my family ties into three different colored boxes.
Then I hired a courier to deliver each one to them the next day.
The morning I left; the house was empty. They had all gone to the wedding venue.
My phone buzzed with one notification after another, f*******: messages piling up on the screen.
Sophia sent several photos.
She was in her wedding dress, leaning into Charles’s arms, their fingers tightly interlaced.
Then she sent one line of text: "Karen, are you coming? You can still make it if you leave now."
Lisa replied beneath it. "Don’t come. You’ll only make things worse."
Kane added, "You’re not allowed to show up today."
Finally, Charles wrote, "Stay home and rest. I’ll come back as soon as the ceremony is over."
I stared at the screen for a long time, then typed a single sentence:
"Then I won’t go. I’ve already sent your present. When you get back, there’ll be a bigger surprise waiting."
I hit send, turned off my phone, picked up the first gasoline can, twisted the cap, and began pouring it over every wall, every corner.
A match flared, and flames raced outward in a hungry rush.
The replica corpse sat quietly on the sofa as the fire climbed up its arms.
Shouldering my luggage, I walked out the door.
Behind me, the blaze lit up the sky. Ash burned in the air. I never once looked back.
In the airport terminal, Quinn was already waiting for me.
He took my luggage and nodded once. "Ready?"
"Yeah."
We boarded the plane. As the cabin doors closed, he handed me a set of new identification papers.
"From now on," he said, "you’re Jennifer."
I lowered my eyes to the photo. The woman in it didn’t smile. Her gaze was steady, unflinching. Next to it, my new name was printed clearly—Jennifer.
From that moment on, Moon Shade’s Karen was dead. The only person left in the world was Jennifer.
- Writer
