Lila’s POV 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"I don’t want to hear any more excuses. You Hales... you’re all beasts. All you know is how to use and hunt people. You don’t have any human emotions!"

Having said my piece, I turned and staggered into the morning mist.

Zoe’s anxious shouts echoed behind me, but I didn’t look back.

I didn’t want to trust anyone ever again.

This world was so fake.

Love was fake, affection was fake, and even the very word "friend" could be part of an elaborate scam.

I ran until I was exhausted, until my legs couldn’t support me anymore and I collapsed onto a bench in a small, long-abandoned park on the edge of the city.

The faint morning light touched my skin but brought no warmth.

I hugged my knees and buried my face in my arms, finally letting myself break down and cry.

There was no wailing, no screaming—just silent sobs, like an abandoned young animal licking its wounds alone in the cold night.

’Who am I, really?’

’What is the point of my existence?’

’My adoptive father monitored me, my adoptive brother abandoned me, and now the man I thought was a gift from Lady Luck, my lover, was just using me as a tool to activate some superior bloodline?’

’What am I?’

’What am I...’

I don’t know how much time passed before my phone suddenly started vibrating.

I mechanically pulled it out. The screen lit up, and the caller ID read—Caleb.

The phone vibrated in my palm like a dying, struggling heart. The cold light of the screen stung my eyes, which were red and swollen from crying.

Caleb.

His name pulsed on the screen, like a lifeline dangling over an abyss, yet also like a sharp blade poised to pierce me once more.

I hesitated. My fingertip hovered in the air, trembling, not daring to fall.

’Do I even have the right to answer his call now? He abandoned me for his future. Just when I thought I’d finally found a place to belong, he was the one who personally pushed me into Jasper’s abyss. And now, after Jasper used me up and tossed me aside like trash, after Zoe stabbed me in the back... how can I face him when I’m such a broken, pathetic mess?’

’But besides him, where else can I go?’

’In this vast city, there’s no place for me. Moon Hidden Villa is a gorgeous cage, and I’m the sacrifice inside, about to have my value squeezed dry.’

The vibrating stopped.

A moment later, it stubbornly started again.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath of the cold, dew-heavy air, and pressed the answer button.

"Lila?"

His voice came through, laced with a subtle urgency and worry. The sound of traffic seemed to be in the background. "Where are you? Why weren’t you answering your phone?"

"Caleb..." I opened my mouth, but my throat felt like it had been scraped with sandpaper. The sound that came out was hoarse and broken, thick with congestion. "I..."

"Tell me where you are." He cut me off, his tone becoming firm and decisive. It was the command of the Goodrich family heir—a tone I was once infatuated with, but which now felt incredibly foreign. "Send me your location. I’ll be there right away."

I didn’t have the strength to refuse.

After hanging up, I numbly sent my location like a soulless puppet. Then I curled up on the bench, watching the sky gradually lighten and the early-morning exercisers in the park cast curious or pitying glances my way. I felt like a fish washed ashore, slowly drying out.

About forty minutes later, a black car pulled up silently at the park entrance.

The car door opened, and Caleb got out.

He was wearing a well-tailored, dark gray overcoat, his tie perfectly knotted—still the same noble, elegant, and aloof Caleb. But when he saw me, a flicker of genuine pain crossed his eyes, which were usually full of calculation and indifference.

He walked over quickly, took off his overcoat, and wrapped it around me without a word.

"Are you cold?" he asked in a low voice, reaching out to touch my cheek.

I instinctively turned my head away.

His hand froze in midair. Then, with a bitter smile, he pulled it back. "Get in the car."

I didn’t ask where we were going.

The car started and drove away from the dilapidated little park. I leaned against the rear window, watching the streetscape fly backward. I felt like I was being swept up by the city’s massive torrent, rushing toward an unknown vortex.

"Jasper..." Caleb broke the silence in the car, his voice low. "What did he do to you?"

I closed my eyes, the words from that report resurfacing in my mind.

"Nothing," I answered coldly, my voice like ice. "I just discovered some truths."

Caleb glanced at me in the rearview mirror but didn’t press the issue. The car headed west, entering the city’s most expensive residential area.

Eventually, the car stopped in front of a detached, European-style villa.

"Where is this?" I asked, looking at the unfamiliar building as a sense of foreboding rose within me.

"This is... my marital home," Caleb said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face me, his expression complex. "Lila, stay here for now. It’s safe."

"Marital home?" The two words pierced my ears like needles.

"Yes." He avoided my gaze. "Penelope’s and my marital home. But that’s not important. What’s important is that I can’t take you to my family’s house. You know my father... he’s against you..."

"I’m not staying." I pushed the car door open, about to get out.

"Lila!" He grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong. "Snap out of it! Do you think you have any other choice right now? You’re the Wolf King’s wife in name, the caged bird Derek arranged for my father to adopt! If you go out looking like this, you’ll be eaten alive!"

I froze.

He was telling the truth. It was cruel, but irrefutable.

"Stay here." He released his grip, his voice tinged with exhaustion and pleading. "Just consider it a favor to me. Help me... atone for how I failed you in the past."

I looked at him. This was the man I once loved, and also the man who pushed me into the abyss. But now, the exhaustion and sincerity in his eyes made my long-numb heart stir, just a little.

’Maybe I really have nowhere else to go.’

"Okay," I heard myself say.

Caleb clearly breathed a sigh of relief. He led me in through a side door, avoiding the cameras at the main entrance. The villa’s interior was luxurious but cold, filled with brand-new, trend-setting furniture and decor.

"Lila, you can stay in the master bedroom. The other rooms haven’t been furnished yet."

I nodded in a daze, with not a single brain cell left for thinking. I just wanted to hurry and hide in a corner, ignore everyone, and be left alone until the end of time.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a door opening at the entrance, followed by the crisp CLACK of high heels.

It was Penelope.