Chapter 4

Dolly POV

The door slammed shut, leaving behind a silence that ate at my skin and left nothing but goosebumps behind.

They were gone. All of them. Except Cassidy, she hadn’t moved.

She stood still, her back turned to me, her shoulders shaking with what I thought were sobs. My throat burned from crying. My legs trembled and I fought the urge to go down to the ground in shame.

“Cass…” I choked out, dragging the sheet tighter around me. “Please, I swear on everything—I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember how I got here. I didn’t touch him, I didn’t do anything. It's really not my fault.”

She turned around slowly. And wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

But something in her face had changed.

She wasn’t crying anymore. There was no heartbreak, no pain, no confusion. Only amusement, Annoyed amusement.

She gave a long, dramatic sigh like she was tired of pretending. “God, you’re so dumb.”

My brows furrowed. “W-what?”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” she asked, her voice smooth and clear now, “I planned this. All of it.”

I stared at her, mouth parting, heart thudding in disbelief.

“You think I actually want to marry this useless nameless comatose, wheelchair-bound bastard?” she laughed bitterly, tossing her hair back. “He was just a deal, a damn name in exchange for a tiny contract. But you? You were easy. Always so desperate to be accepted, to belong. The little invisible mouse in the house of lions.”

I shook my head slowly. “Cassidy… no. You’re not serious. You—”

“I’m dead serious,” she cut in, eyes glittering with cruelty. “And your greedy best friend Amira? She made everything easier. A little money here, a little lie there. Boom. You’re naked in his bed like the tragic heroine you are.”

My knees nearly gave out. “No. Amira wouldn’t, she’s my friend. My best friend.” I said it like I wanted to believe it.

Cassidy smiled. “Keep telling yourself that.”

I took a step back. “Why… why would you do this to me?”

She sighed and looked toward the door. “God, Mom is such a performer. I almost teared up at her speech. And Dad? So gullible. One look at my tears and he’s ready to exile his own daughter.”

“Cassidy, stop, please stop, this can’t be real…”

She stepped closer, eyes narrow with disgust. “It’s been my dream to get rid of you for a long time. You were always the stain in this family. The charity case. So, when the marriage proposal came, I saw my chance. Funny enough, I didn't have to do much, just plan and play pretend. You walked straight into it. Now, the deal and money is all ours.”

Tears streamed freely down my face now. “What did I ever do to deserve this? Why do you and Mom hate me so much? I tried—I always tried to fit in, to be good enough—”

“You were never good enough!” she snapped. “You were the mistake that should’ve stayed buried. Always in my way. Always trying to be the better daughter, how dare you.”

My voice rose, cracked, desperate. “So you ruin my life?! Just like that? Because I existed?! You don’t get to—”

My face whipped to the side as a hard slap landed on my cheek

Pain exploded in my cheek, spreading to my jaw and I knew there was going to be a red mark there.

I staggered again, hand flying up to the sting.

Cassidy strolled over to a nearby corner of the room, crouched, and opened a velvet box.

She pulled out something small and black; sleek, with blinking red lights.

A recorder.

I froze. “What… what is that?”

She grinned and held it up like a trophy. “Evidence. You think I’d do all this without covering my tracks?”

“Evidence of what?! I didn’t do anything!”

She leaned in close, her perfume added to the unease my chest already felt. “You didn’t need to. A few secret clips of you naked on the same bed with your unconscious sister's fiancé. Maybe a little editing here and there… and suddenly, the whole world sees what kind of girl you really are.”

My blood turned to ice. “No…”

“Oh yes,” she whispered. “So here’s what you’re going to do. You’ll marry him. Be his sweet little nurse-wife, spoon-feed him your pity. And then you’ll disappear. You would not dare start any scandal,.or try to find your way out of this.”

I could barely breathe.

“If you even try to fight back, or ever open your mouth about any of this?” She waved the recorder casually. “You’ll be all over the news by the next morning. Let's see how the world and father would take seeing your nudeness all over the news”

My world tilted. My skin felt cold even under the heavy sheet.

“You’re a monster,” I whispered.

She gave me a long, satisfied smile. “No, Dolly. I’m a survivor. You’re just the perfect scapegoat. I and mom's scapegoat.”

Then she walked out, each step was louder than the last, she knew she had won. My eyes watered and the door clicked shut.

And I collapsed to my knees, drowning in silence, I tried to force the tears in, tried to stop the aching in my heart, it only took one nigtbfot my entire life to turn upside down.

I turned my head slowly, eyes swollen, vision blurry as I stared at the man lying unconscious in the bed. The man who had now gone from Cassidy’s fiancé to mine, just in a twinkle of an eye. Now my punishment. My cage.

“What did you do to deserve this?” I whispered, voice hoarse and cracked. “Or maybe the better question is... what the hell did I do?”

I crawled closer, my tears falling freely now. My chest heaved with pain. And I did something that made no sense; I hit him. My weak, trembling fists smacking against his unmoving chest.

“I hate you,” I cried. “I don’t even know you and I hate you. I hate what you represent. I hate that you’re here. I hate that you exist. I hate you!”

Another sob broke from my lips. I hit him again.

And again, and Aga—

A strong hand grabbed my wrist, stopping the fourth hit, every blood in my body went ice cold, my eyes bugging as I stared at the man before me, the one who was said had been in a coma, his eyes had opened, an angry glare in them. My mouth dropped open but before I could utter words, he pulled me in a hard tug, I gasped as I lost my balance, landing on his hard rocked chest, my naked body on his.

"You're.... You're awake..." My voice fell into a whisper as I stared at him in disbelief, like I had seen a ghost."How..."

His hold on my wrist tightened, pulling me closer to his face, "Hitting a man in coma doesn't exactly seem like a lady-like thing to do now, does it, Sweetheart?"