Chapter 2

"You're going out like that?"

Lucas glanced at my torn clothes, his eyes sweeping toward the door he'd deliberately left slightly open.

I knew what he was reminding me—that everything that just happened had been clearly visible to his men through that crack.

But they'd already witnessed me in even more degrading positions. What did this matter?

I numbly pushed the door open. He grabbed my wrist.

"Do you have any shame left?"

I looked back calmly. "Have you ever given me any dignity?"

He fell silent.

We both knew the truth.

From the moment I beat him three times in a row at that shooting competition when we were nineteen, he'd fallen deeply in love with me.

He said he loved the fierce determination in my eyes when I pulled the trigger.

But in just seven years, he grew tired of it.

All because the newcomer Mia curled up in his arms and said, "Lucas, the way Kiera looks at me... I'm so scared."

So he personally severed the tendons in my hands, ensuring I could never hold a gun again.

Seven years of life-and-death companionship, defeated by a single tear from his new flame.

He'd brought up breaking things off seven times, each time because Mia wanted official recognition.

Even now, knowing full well my mother was lying in the ICU waiting for money to survive, he remained unmoved.

My eyes suddenly burned. I asked hoarsely, "That sniper rifle—how much did it cost?"

He said casually, "Three hundred million."

Three hundred million.

My heart felt like it was being crushed by an invisible hand, the pain suffocating.

I only needed fifty million. A fraction of that amount would be enough to save my mother.

After seven years with him, I wasn't worth as much as Mia's sniper rifle.

Lucas always meant what he said. If he said wait a month, even if I died right here, he wouldn't change his mind.

I stopped pleading and walked straight to the door.

Outside, several team members were smoking. They fell abruptly silent when they saw me.

They awkwardly looked away. Someone laughed nervously, "Kiera, finished with training?"

The group exchanged knowing glances, laughing under their breath.

Lucas threw a glass from inside. The shards sliced across my calf.

Blood seeped into my pants. I didn't even feel it.

He frowned at the bloody mark before tossing his jacket over my shoulders in front of everyone. "I said one month, not never. Who are you making that face for?"

The buttons weren't even fastened—just draped over me for show.

I looked deeply at this man I'd loved for seven years.

I'd always thought if I was just a little more obedient, a little more humble, he'd remember that I'd once taken a bullet for him, that I'd been willing to die for him.

They say true love means caring, but his eyes held only coldness.

The moment I stepped out of the compound, all my strength drained away. My legs shook so badly I could barely stand.

As tears fell, laughter echoed shamelessly from inside.

Someone asked Lucas, "The Sterling family was obviously set up. Are you really not going to help?"

Lucas's voice was cold. "I'm the one who set the trap. Mia said Kiera publicly humiliated her when she first joined the organization. She's been hurt all these years—I had to make it up to her somehow."

"Aren't you worried Kiera will actually leave? She's a top-tier sniper with a backbone of steel."

Lucas laughed outright. "Come on. We've known each other eight years, been together seven. Kiera always comes running back with one phone call."

"If she can actually walk away, I might actually respect her for once."

I pressed against the wall, biting my hand hard to keep from sobbing out loud.

My family's bankruptcy, my desperate pleas for help that went unanswered—it was all because Lucas blocked every avenue, all because Mia shed a few tears three years ago.

My wounds stuck to my soaked clothes. Every movement tore at my flesh.

Thinking of my mother covered in tubes, thinking of the doctor saying they'd stop the machines if I didn't pay soon, I slapped myself twice, hard.

"Idiot. If you hadn't fallen for him, you wouldn't have dragged your whole family into this hell."

I never imagined that trusting someone with my life would end like this.

The Davis family was a powerful gang controlling half the underground arms trade. Lucas's word could determine life or death.

He was determined to avenge Mia. No one in the underworld dared help me.

I stood on the river bridge in despair, looking at the surging waters below, almost ready to jump.

But I didn't dare.

If I died, what would happen to my mother?