Part 2True Heiress’s Wish to Die

Marcus’s face was a mess of shame and conflict. His lips moved as if to say something more, but I was already done listening.

The System had promised me a new world. A world where I would have loving parents and a brilliant older brother who adored me.

A world completely different from this one, where every meal I'd eaten for seven years had felt like choking down uncooked rice.

With that thought, I took a deep breath and broke into a run toward the man-made lake.

"Cora! Where are you going?"

As I sprinted, I could hear his frantic footsteps pounding on the pavement behind me.

"Cora! No one at home is blaming you! Sophie promised she'd try to get along with you! You need to stop this, right now—"

His angry shouts died in his throat.

Because without a moment's hesitation, I launched myself toward the thin sheet of ice forming at the water's edge.

I ran, full of joy, toward my new world.

But in the next second, my vision flipped. A strong arm wrapped around my waist, tackling me to the frozen grass.

At the same time, I heard a loud splash.

I sat up, pushing myself from the ground, and saw Marcus flailing in the icy water.

He couldn't swim. I could hear his choked gasps for air, his face already turning a deathly shade of blue from the cold.

I just sat there on the lawn, watching him sink, my expression blank.

Chaos erupted on the shore. Someone jumped in and dragged him out.

Wrapped in a blanket, Marcus shivered violently, but his eyes, across the frantic crowd, found mine.

For the first time, those eyes, which always held such cold assessment and judgment when they looked at me, held something else. They held pain. Anguish.

But what did he have to be anguished about?

I shook my head, a scornful smile on my face.

When the Moreau family found me at fifteen, I actually had one good year.

Back then, Sophie had claimed she felt guilty for stealing my life of privilege. She announced she was giving me back my parents and brother, and she moved out with Rhys.

She left with a dramatic flourish, deleting all her contact information for the family.

That year, my mother cooked my favorite dishes. My father canceled business dinners to eat with me.

And Marcus would pick me up from school every day.

The dinner table was often silent, and Marcus was always distracted on the drives home, but I was still clumsy and greedy in my enjoyment of the warmth I had been denied for fifteen years.

I thought I finally had a home.

But the next year, Sophie came back, with Rhys in tow.

She was rail-thin and looked like a startled bird.

And just like that, in less than a year, my father, mother, and brother were no longer mine.

The food on the table was always Sophie's favorite. My father, no matter how late he came home, would always peek into her room.

And I never saw Marcus’s car at the school gates again.

Then came Sophie’s endless campaign of sabotage.

She said I tore her dress. Marcus believed her and threw my entire wardrobe into the backyard pond.

She said I stole her necklace. Marcus looked at me like I was scum. "Give it back to her, Cora. Don't make me search your room."

The necklace was later found in a hidden compartment of Sophie’s own jewelry box.

She just stuck out her tongue and said she'd forgotten, and no one cared about the suspicion and hurt I had endured.

She said I was spreading rumors about her at school. Marcus didn't even bother to ask me; he just canceled my car service.

Sophie's tactics were never clever, but they were sharp, and they dug into my flesh, causing a pain that was deep and relentless.

My explanations were useless. Their favoritism was a fortress, and I was never allowed even a sliver of their affection.

So what was this performance now? What was all this supposed to mean?