Part 1The Most Wretched and the Most Arrogant

In Veridia City, the most pitiful and the most vicious heiress shared my last name.

The day my stepsister Morgan tried to shove my head in a toilet, Sebastian Thorne—the young prince, bleeding and hunted—shot her through both hands.

“She is this city’s future queen!” he snarled. “Let’s see who dares touch her now.”

That rescue only deepened Morgan’s hate. She tortured me creatively while undermining Sebastian’s bloody rise to power.

A decade later, the day he seized his family’s empire, Sebastian booked the city’s finest suite to propose.

But when I opened the door, he lay tangled in silk sheets with Morgan, both naked.

The room fell silent. Everyone knew she was our sworn enemy.

Morgan smirked, flaunting the marks on her skin. “Don’t give me that ‘I mistook you for your sister’ excuse, Sebastian. You knew it was me. You let me win the East Side project, didn’t you?”

“Face it—you want a queen, not a weakling like her.”

Sebastian smiled faintly. He didn’t deny it.

As guests gasped, he picked up the ring and reached for my hand as if nothing happened.

I stood still.

“You once said,” I asked quietly, “that when you took power, I could do anything in this city.”

“Does that still hold true?”

He paused, surprised I hadn’t collapsed as usual, then nodded confidently. “Of course.”

* * *

I smiled back.

The next second, I grabbed a fistful of Morgan’s hair and dragged her from the bed into the adjoining bathroom. I snatched the toilet plunger from its stand and brought it down on her with all my strength.

Foul water and flecks of blood splattered everywhere.

The guests screamed and scrambled back, their looks of pity curdling into disgust.

Morgan, who had spent her life grinding me under her heel, shrieked in disbelief, her hand flying to her face. "Stella, are you insane?! Your mother had no class, and she raised a goddamn lunatic!"

"You think this was my idea? It was Dad! He was ashamed of you! He told me to 'discipline' you properly!"

My vision turned red. I swung the plunger harder, a decade of torment erupting in a single, violent burst.

The calm smile on Sebastian's face shattered.

Crack.

The sound of a gunshot echoed in the small space, and the plunger fell from my nerveless fingers. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears. I only realized what had happened when a warm drop of blood trickled down my cheek.

He had fired at me.

The scene superimposed itself over the memory from ten years ago, when he had risked everything to protect me from Morgan.

Only this time, I was the one on the other side of the gun.

A wave of bitter grief washed over me, hot and sharp. "Sebastian…"

"Stella! How could you do something so vicious to your own sister? I don't even recognize you anymore!"

I stared at his moving lips, unable to process the words. Morgan? My family? Her mother was the mistress who had destroyed mine. After Morgan was born, my own mother had a mysterious "fall" that broke her leg and left her partially paralyzed. From that day on, our lives became a living hell. After my mother died in a fire, I, the true heiress, was left to scavenge for moldy scraps in garbage cans.

It was Sebastian who, at great personal risk, had climbed the walls of our estate again and again, bringing me bags of food. I still remembered the feeling of my hot tears mixing with the warmth of the food bags on my cold hands. Those years were filled with hard, tasteless survival biscuits, but to me, they were the sweetest things in the world.

Sebastian had walked with me through that darkness. And yet, he could still stand here and call Morgan my family.

I couldn't hear the rest of what he said. I only caught the words, "The only Mrs. Thorne will be you."