Vanessa had sold her blood a few times in secret, just to afford a pair of shoes her mother refused to buy her. She never imagined that it would lead to a laboratory contacting her, offering an astronomical sum for regular donations.

Of course, she refused. She wouldn't risk her life.

After rejecting Dr. Smith's generous offer, she stormed out of the office and collided with someone.

As she rubbed the sore spot and looked up, she froze. She could hear her own heart pounding wildly in her chest.

A twenty-year-old lan politely helped her up, his voice a low, distant murmur. "My apologies."

Then he turned and entered the office she had just left.

Just as Vanessa was about to leave, she overheard lan and Dr. Smith talking. She learned that the person who desperately needed her blood was this very man's mother.

In that instant, a wild, audacious idea took hold of her. She knew, with chilling certainty, that an opportunity to change her destiny was right in front of her.

She had to have him. She had to hold on to him for dear life.

She walked back into Dr. Smith's office. Her face was flushed, but her voice was firm as she announced her willingness to donate.

She had seized her chance. Over the next two weeks, she saw lan frequently as he personally accompanied her. A month later, she confessed her feelings to him. She loved money, of course, but lan was far more alluring. The more she was around him, the more she understood her own value: she was the only person in the world who could save his mother.

She had successfully tied herself to the Goodwin family, and in doing so, gained the power to negotiate with him.

That year, she was admitted to Drexford's prestigious The Arts Institute. And from that year on, lan became her sole objective, the lifeline she had to grasp to change her fate Even if their relationship was built on a transaction from the start, she threw herself into it without a second thought, stopping at nothing.

If only... if only Eleanor had never appeared.

She would have been lan's wife long ago.

Vanessa got another glass of red wine, her eyes burning with resentment and a

frenzied hatred as the memories flooded back.

She would never forget the moment she learned he had gotten married back in his home country. It was

right after her third confession on et

him, a time when she had already started acting like his girlfriend. In that instant, Vanessa felt alt her dreams and schemes crumble into a pathetic joke. She had given so much, even risked her health-why was it some woman named Eleanor who ended up with lan?

She couldn't accept it.

The day he arrived in Drexford, she called him and delivered a vicious threat. If he

didn't come, she would jump off a bridge.

He came.

And she jumped anyway.

lan dove in after her. When he pulled her from the river, she acted like a hysterical, irrational madwoman, crying for what felt like hours, repeating over and over how much she loved him. Finally, threatening to kilt herself again, she forced him to sign an agreement.

She would never forget the cold, coerced look in his eyes, nor the fury simmering beneath the surface. But she knew he couldn't take the risk. He couldn't afford to call her bluff.

In the end, he agreed. He would give her anything she wanted-except marriage. He would also spend half of every year in Drexford, and he was forbidden from bringing Eleanor with him.

Even though lan didn't spend that time with her, it gave her opportunities to be near him, to be seen with him. She would use this to torment the woman who had stolen him, to prove her own special, indispensable place in his life.