CHAPTER 1: I Was Left to Die
"This can't be the end for me… no."
I screamed in my head as I sprinted across the empty road.
My legs burned as I ran toward the old creaking bridge ahead. This place was isolated—no help, no people, nothing.
Only death chasing me.
Two black vans were behind me.
They were not stopping.
I had just escaped a kidnapping… but now I realized something worse.
They were still after me.
Why me?
That question kept repeating in my mind for days… ever since I was taken.
But last night, I learned the truth.
Jules and Kelly.
The two people I trusted with my life… were the ones trying to destroy it.
My chest tightened as I forced myself to keep running.
"Kimmy… pull yourself together!" I shouted inwardly.
"You need to run like your life depends on it… because it actually does!"
I turned my head slightly.
They were out of the vans.
And Kelly… had a gun in her hand.
My body was already weak. Wounded. Barely holding on.
Still, I couldn't stop.
I tried to keep moving, but my strength was fading.
"Kelly… please," I begged as I stumbled.
"I'm sorry… don't do this… I'm your sister."
She laughed.
A cold, empty laugh.
"You are not my sister," she replied.
"You are just stupid and gullible."
Her words cut deeper than any wound.
"I never liked you from the beginning," she continued.
"Talented… yet foolish. Why should you have everything good?"
Her eyes darkened.
"I'm too beautiful to be ordinary. I won't sit and watch you get married to Jules."
My breath stopped.
"What…?"
Kelly smiled.
"I'm pregnant for him."
The world shattered.
My knees weakened and I fell slightly, barely holding myself up.
I had just found out I was pregnant before the kidnapping…
And now this.
Jules stepped forward, calm… too calm.
"You're really stupid," he said coldly.
"Kelly is from a respected family. She has value… connections… business advantage."
He looked at me like I was nothing.
"But you? No family. No money. No status. Just an orphan."
My heart broke completely.
"I'm not going to marry a rejected orphan," he added.
Kelly moved closer to him, holding his arm.
"We're getting married soon," she said proudly.
Jules nodded.
"And you… you need to be removed."
My whole body froze.
"My sketchbook… your designs…" he continued.
"I can't use them if you're alive."
Kelly smiled beside him.
"And I don't want you here either."
His eyes turned cold.
"You're a threat in the future."
He raised his voice slightly.
"So why should you exist?"
Silence.
Then—
Something inside me snapped.
I slowly stood up, despite the pain.
"No…" I whispered.
"I can't die here… not by you two."
I turned and ran one last time.
But a gunshot rang out.
Everything slowed.
My body felt weightless.
The last thing I saw…
Was their smiling faces.
Watching me fall.
Into the water.