When I arrived at the private club, Liam was sitting at the head of the table. His expression was controlled, but the corners of his eyes were red. A circle of trust-fund kids were holding their breath. Seeing me felt like seeing their savior. They practically stood at attention: "Good evening, Mrs. Sterling." The girl sitting next to him panicked when she saw me. Her eyes red, she turned to him and pleaded, "Liam, I'm back. Are you really going to go home with her?" I walked over and picked up a bottle of red wine from the table. "Liam. Go home, or get your head cracked open. Pick one." 01 The private room was so quiet that all you could hear was the uneven breathing of the people inside. Liam lifted his heavy eyelids to look at me. In that single movement, I could clearly sense his intense irritation. The rich kids standing in a circle, terrified of being caught in the crossfire, silently shuffled backward to a safe distance. I stood perfectly still in front of them, gripping the neck of the wine bottle. After a long pause, a smirk tugged at the corner of Liam's mouth. "Who called your sister-in-law here?" The moment the words left his mouth, all the color drained from the face of the girl sitting next to him. She looked like she was about to shatter into a million pieces. She clung to Liam's arm, her voice trembling as she asked: "Liam, are you... are you really going home with her?" I let out a scoff, pulled out a chair, sat down, and looked her dead in the eye. "Chloe, while I'm still trying to hold myself back, I suggest you get out of here on your own." A single tear slid down her cheek. "Since you know who I am, do you also know..." I cut her off. "I know. I know you're the one that got away. I know he still keeps a framed picture of you on his desk." A shy blush crept up Chloe's neck. A sudden spark lit up her eyes as she gently rested her head against Liam's shoulder. "Liam, I came back for you. Divorce her. Even after all these years, marrying you is still my biggest dream." "I know you aren't happy. You've suffered so much these past few years." Liam tried desperately to maintain his usual poker face, but the bulging vein on his temple betrayed the intense emotions surging within him. He slowly raised his hand, reaching out to gently stroke Chloe's back. I smiled coldly, shattering their tender moment. "Well, Mr. Sterling. It seems you don't want to go home." "My apologies, then." I raised my arm high and brought the heavy glass wine bottle crashing down directly onto Chloe's head! 02 CRASH! The sound of shattering glass was instantly drowned out by the terrified screams erupting in the room. Chloe, deathly pale, stared at Liam, who had thrown himself over her, shielding her in his arms. A mixture of dark red wine and bright red blood was gushing from a deep gash on his temple. "Liam! Liam! Are you okay?! Oh my god, are you okay..." Chloe scrambled out of Liam's protective embrace, her hands shaking violently as she helped him sit back down. Frantically, she grabbed a fistful of napkins from the table and pressed them desperately against his bleeding forehead. The napkins were instantly soaked through with blood. Chloe whipped her head around and screamed at me like a madwoman: "You psycho!!! Are you trying to kill someone?! How could Liam ever marry a psycho like you?!" Liam caught his breath after a moment. He took the napkins from her, wiped the mix of blood and wine out of his eyes, and pulled Chloe back. "Chloe, don't provoke her." "Are you hurt anywhere?" Chloe's lip trembled. She held out her hand. There was a tiny, maybe one-centimeter scratch from a piece of flying glass. Liam instantly jumped up, a look of absolute panic on his face. He carefully cradled her hand and started leading her toward the door. "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt? Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital right now." I looked down at my own hand, hanging limply by my side. Blood dripped steadily from my fingertips, soaking into the plush carpet, disappearing without a trace. I had been running on fumes all day at the corporate office. I had a massive meeting with a crucial client and barely managed to choke down a few bites of a sandwich for lunch. The second I finally got off work and saw the text someone sent me, I rushed straight to this club. Liam. I was exhausted, starving, and sleep-deprived. And I was bleeding, too. How did the brave boy who once scraped his hands raw and took a brutal beating to save me from kidnappers turn into this complete stranger? A wave of severe dizziness hit me. The room spun wildly. Purely on instinct, I grabbed the edge of the table and collapsed heavily into the chair. I heard someone call out to him: "Liam, your wife is bleeding too! She doesn't look good at all!" Liam's voice drifted back from down the hall. "She's a tough woman. She can handle it herself." I looked up. His retreating back was so resolute, so utterly unfeeling. Whatever. This just meant that when I finally closed the net, I wouldn't have to feel a single ounce of guilt. 03 I looked up at the trust-fund kids. These notoriously arrogant playboys of the city's elite were standing perfectly still, looking at me with genuine concern. I smiled and waved them off. "I'm starving. Someone get some food in here." "Yes, ma'am! Right away!" Tyler, the heir to the club's ownership, was the most eager to please. He immediately barked orders at the staff to clear the table and bring out a fresh feast. Watching them scurry around, it felt just like when we were kids, and they used to follow Liam and me around, calling us "Big Bro" and "Big Sis." When did "Big Bro" stay "Big Bro," but "Big Sis" turn into "Sister-in-law"? Probably ever since I was five years old, when my nanny kidnapped me for ransom. Liam, who was only eight at the time, managed to piece together the tiny clues the nanny left behind and found me before the police ever did. When I woke up from passing out, I was strapped to Liam's skinny back. He was gritting his teeth, his legs trembling under the weight, slowly carrying me out of that terrifying abandoned factory. That image was permanently burned into my soul. The elders in our families always joked that for the rest of his life, I would be Liam's one and only exception. His favorite person. But... then Liam met the girl of his dreams. Unlike me, who lost my mother in that kidnapping and was strictly raised to be a ruthless corporate heir—everything I did was for the family business and for revenge. But Chloe? She would never raise her voice at Liam. She would never aggressively demand he read financial journals or learn eight different languages. She would sit quietly by his side, watching him with a gentle, adoring smile. She was willing to cook for him. Willing to spend hours sitting with him in lectures she didn't even understand. She did all these things for him. Things I could never do. The environment I grew up in only taught me how to calculate risks and weigh pros and cons. Until Chloe got into a huge fight with Liam because he was just too rich. She said she could never fit into his world. She turned around and flew across the ocean. Liam didn't chase after her. I knew he had massive ambitions. He wanted control of the Sterling family empire, and he wanted control of mine—the Vance family empire. Before he secured both empires, he wouldn't abandon me for Chloe. So, when Liam proposed, I said yes without hesitation. Liam gave me every ounce of romance that money could buy. I enjoyed it with a clear conscience. I knew better than anyone that the Sterling empire and the Vance empire would eventually both be mine. All the beautiful things he bought with his money? I was just enjoying my inheritance early. I ate my food in silence, my brain rapidly running through every step of my master plan. I had been planning this for over a decade. I refused to let there be a single flaw. Maybe I was too quiet, because Tyler couldn't take the tension anymore. He slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "Sarah! You've never shown any mercy to the women buzzing around Liam!" "Why did you back down today?!" Way to poke the bear. The entire table went dead silent. I smiled faintly. "Because she's Chloe." The "one that got away" is a lethal weapon. One strike, and it's fatal. I pulled out my phone. The screen was completely blank. No missed calls, no texts. I figured Chloe's "life-threatening" scratch was probably fully healed by now. 04 Just as I expected, Liam didn't come home that night. I sat in the living room the entire night, watching the city go from pitch black at midnight to the gray light of 7 AM. I knew my era had finally arrived. When the clock struck 8, I was dressed impeccably. I used heavy concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes and stepped into my chauffeured car right on time. I never expected to see Chloe at the office. She was wearing a brand-new, tailored business suit, sitting at the desk in the outer office of Liam's executive suite. When she saw me walk past, she immediately stood up and offered a bright, professional smile. "Good morning, Ms. Vance." The smug, victorious smirk playing on her lips, paired with her innocent, harmless face, made my blood boil. My face darkened. I immediately called the HR Director up and loudly demanded to know what the hell was going on. Since when did the company start hiring random strays off the street? Chloe looked so humiliated she wanted to sink into the floor. Her face flushed bright red, tears welled in her eyes, and under my aggressive interrogation, she couldn't utter a single word. When I get angry, no one in the company dares to breathe. After delivering a few harsh reprimands, I suddenly felt bored by the whole charade. I waved my hand dismissively at the HR Director: "Fire her. Give Ms. Chloe whatever severance package is legally required, down to the last penny." Chloe, who had been keeping her head down, suddenly snapped her head up. Tears streamed down her face like broken pearls. "Ms. Vance, I'm begging you. I really need this job. Please, don't fire me." "You live high up in your ivory towers, while people like me only survive on your charity. Are you really going to strip away the one small right I have to make a living?!" Such classic, manipulative victim-blaming. I lifted my gaze, looking past her trembling shoulders to the heavy oak door behind her. Right on cue, the door swung open, and Liam stood there, his face like thunder. "Sarah Vance. You might come from old money, but that doesn't give you the right to throw your weight around and bully people." "She is my executive assistant. Not yours." With just one sentence, he drew a massive, uncrossable line in the sand. He walked forward, took Chloe's hand, looked around at the terrified staff, and announced in a booming voice: "From this day forward, Ms. Chloe is my executive assistant. I take full responsibility for every word she says and every action she takes." So this was what his 'exception' looked like. I didn't say a word. I took two steps back, turned around, and walked back to my own office. Right before it was time to leave for the day, my assistant reminded me that I had an incredibly important gala to attend with Liam that night. A massive contract I had been negotiating for six months was riding on this dinner. I took several deep breaths, psyching myself up. I changed into my evening gown, touched up my makeup, and walked over to Liam's office. Just as I raised my hand to knock, the door opened from the inside. Chloe, wearing a stunning evening gown, was walking out arm-in-arm with Liam. They were laughing and chatting happily. I froze in my tracks. It was early autumn. A draft blew through the hallway, chilling my bare shoulders. Liam stopped walking and shot me a look of pure, icy indifference. "From now on, my Executive Assistant will accompany me to these social events." "We won't need to trouble you anymore, Ms. Vance." The two of them walked past me toward the elevators. "Liam, I've been personally managing this project for six months." Liam's voice drifted back to me, growing fainter as the elevator doors opened. "Starting today, it's being handled by my Executive Assistant." 05 Liam personally intervened and signed the contract on Chloe's behalf. Before the project even officially launched, the paperwork authorizing Chloe's massive commission payout landed on my desk. I refused to sign it and sent the paperwork straight back, untouched. Even without the commission check, it didn't stop Chloe from becoming the most famous woman in the corporate headquarters overnight. Her fame even spread to our business partners. That day, I received a call from Chairman Chen, one of our oldest associates. "Sarah, what have you been so busy with lately? You haven't come by to have tea with your Uncle Chen in ages." I laughed. "Uncle Chen, you're the busy one! How do you even have time to call me?" Chairman Chen hesitated for a long time before finally saying: "Liam recently bought a standalone luxury villa from one of my developments. The registered owner on the deed is Chloe." "They've probably already moved in." The teacup in my hand tilted sharply, spilling hot tea all over my desk. Counting from the very first night he didn't come home, Liam had been gone for 29 consecutive days. My master plan was fully in motion. I had gone from lying awake all night with anxiety to falling asleep the second my head hit the pillow. I was carrying the immense weight of two family empires on my shoulders. Petty romantic drama was not the main theme of my life. Tyler and his group of trust-fund friends had reached out to me multiple times, wanting to intervene and get justice for me. I stopped them every time. Everything was going exactly according to plan. I didn't feel wronged or victimized in the slightest. These kids didn't understand. When two evenly matched powerhouses collide, they can build an empire together... or they can completely destroy each other. The knot tied by time could only be unraveled by time.
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