But now… Her most reliable power, the one thing she trusted unconditionally, it didn't work on Shin Keir. Not even a flicker.
Coupled with his status, influence, and terrifying self-control…
Didn't that make her nothing but a fish laid obediently on a chopping board?
Helpless. Trapped. At his mercy.
Yeri's fingers tightened around her pen, her heart sinking deeper and deeper.
After class, Levi from the advanced class was already waiting outside their room.
Most of the students had already filtered out, while the teacher still simmering with humiliation after being mocked, remained inside, loudly berating whoever was unfortunate enough to still be within earshot.
"What happened?" Levi asked, brows raised as he observed the commotion.
Nina shrugged and briefly explained.
Levi didn't react. He looked almost bored, as if the chaos of the special class was already a familiar circus act. He'd seen enough of their antics to know this was nothing new.
Meanwhile, Yeri followed the two like a wandering spirit, quiet, disconnected, almost weightless.
Nina sighed softly. "See? She's been like this since morning." She glanced at Levi with visible concern.
Levi finally looked at Yeri properly. Seeing her pale complexion and unfocused eyes, his expression tightened.
"Yz, if you're feeling unwell, let's go to the clinic," he said gently. "Do you need medicine?"
It wasn't until Nina hooked her arm around Yeri's that she finally blinked and returned to the present. She looked at the two of them, both worried, both waiting.
Yeri forced a small smile. "It's nothing serious. It's not my illness… I'm just exhausted with all the engagement preparations."
It was a convenient excuse. As her current circumstances were far too complicated to explain.
These two were young, free, single. They would never understand how terrifying her reality had become. And sweet Nina, would probably call the police on the spot if she knew. But what would that accomplish? Nothing. Not against someone like Shin Keir.
Suddenly, she thought of a brief escape from her predicament.
"It's been a while since we hung out," she said, voice softer than usual. "Let's play some games. And Nina… can I stay at your dorm tonight?"
Nina froze for half a second then burst into sparkling joy.
"YES. Absolutely! Let's buy snacks, drinks, everything!" she said, practically bouncing.
Levi, being a guy, naturally couldn't tag along to the dorm, but he was perfectly content with the gaming part.
"Then we'll play Tartarus tonight," he said with a small smile, relieved she seemed more like herself.
---
Meanwhile, on a private island…
Lianna sat by a window, turning the pages of a heavy book. The sunlight filtered through sheer curtains, warm but unable to ease the cold knot in her chest.
Zahn had confined her here against her will.
The first few days, she had panicked, cried, raged, pacing the villa like a trapped animal. She had no idea what to do, no one to seek help from, and every passing hour suffocated her.
But as days went by, her breathing steadied. Her mind cooled. Fear wouldn't help her. Panic would only feed into what Zahn Neri wanted.
Because she finally understood his intention.
This was his way of forcing her hand, nudging her to compromise. He wanted her to return to being that obedient, dependent woman whose world revolved around him. He wanted her to break on her own and crawl back.
He wanted her to feel powerless against the Neri family.
To believe that as long as he refused to agree, she had no choice, no options, and no one who could help her.
A mere branch, once cut off from the tree, she would wither, unable to sustain herself, clueless on how to face the world alone, easily battered by the relentless storm called life.
In the end, this so-called "time for her to think and rest" was never for her sake.
It was for his own selfishness, his desire to control, to possess, to keep her exactly where he wanted her.
Lianna closed her book gently, her expression unreadable.
Just then, a soft and respectful knock sounded at the door.
"Madam," a female servant called, "your husband and son have just arrived at the port."
Lianna was momentarily stunned, and she instinctively glanced toward the window overlooking the sea.
Truthfully, her stay on the island had been peaceful and serene. The people Zahn sent hadn't mistreated her nor restricted her excessively; they only followed orders, and she wasn't the type to vent her frustrations on innocents. They lived in a kind of quiet harmony.
When Zahn saw her, he inwardly braced himself. He had expected screaming, accusations, maybe even tears. His subordinates had reported how furious she'd been when first brought here, how she lashed out, how she demanded her freedom, how she refused to eat or speak for hours.
He assumed she had been storing all that resentment like a ticking bomb, ready to explode the moment she faced him.
But instead, Lianna looked at him as though he were a stranger passing by. Not a husband. Not the man she love.
There wasn't a single ripple in her eyes. Not anger. Not sorrow. Not relief. Nothing.
She didn't rush to the dock. She didn't wait outside the villa for his arrival.
He found her sitting calmly in her room, near the window, a book open in her hands, serene, distant, untouched by the storm he expected.
Almost as if he no longer had the power to affect her at all.
"The esteemed Young Master Neri came for a visit," Lianna murmured, turning a page without looking up. "Not too busy with work lately?"
Her tone was too polite.
Zahn forced himself to remain calm, but dread churned under his ribs. He would rather she screamed at him, hit him, cursed him, anything that showed her heart still reacted to him.
Yet her calmness… terrified him.
Lianna's gaze lowered at last, and landed beside Zahn.
Sean stood there, clutching the straps of his little backpack. His small face lit up the instant he saw her.
He had rehearsed countless things to say. How much he missed her. How school felt so empty and boring. Most importantly, how he regretted telling her to leave.
But now that he faced her again, he felt shy and silly.
Head down, he shuffled toward her. He slowly opened his backpack and pulled out a notebook.
"N… notebook…" he whispered, voice tiny, almost trembling.
Lianna's expression finally cracked, just a sliver. She could shut out Zahn. She could be indifferent toward the Neri family. But Sean, her son, was the one person she could never harden herself against.
Lianna took the notebook from his hands. Her fingers brushed his, and the subtle warmth nearly broke her composure. Moisture gathered faintly at the corner of her eyes, though her face remained stern.
Since Sean started preschool, she was always the one checking his homework, writing comments in the margins, stamping his pages with stars, helping him redo letters until he mastered them.
That notebook was their quiet bond. Their daily conversation. Their mother–son routine.
Zahn stepped forward and sat across from her.
From a distance, they looked like a harmonious family of three, an attentive father, a gentle mother, and a lively child.
But beneath that surface, the air was taut and suffocating.
Sean shifted nervously at first, stealing glances at Lianna's expression, unsure if she still blamed him. After all, he was the one who had told her to leave. His small chest clenched at the memory.
But seeing she didn't push him away, didn't reject his presence, his uneasiness softened.
And just like that, Sean became talkative like he always used to be. He pointed to the stars Lianna left in his notebook. He told her about school, the new boy he didn't like, the girl who shared candy with him, and how he practiced writing so she would praise him again.
Lianna listened quietly, her cold exterior softening at the edges.
Zahn, watching them, clenched his fists in silence. A glimmer of hope for their relationship, that Lianna still love her son.
As Lianna casually flipped through the notebook, something caught her eye.
A line of handwriting, neat, graceful, unmistakably not Sean's childish scrawl… and certainly not Zahn's ugly, stiff strokes that were barely legible even on a good day.
Her fingertips paused.
The sentence was written in a foreign language.
One Sean couldn't possibly understand. And the writer clearly assumed Zahn would never bother to carefully read a child's notebook.
It was brief yet warm, cheerful, and painfully sincere.
[ Sister Lianna, I hope you're doing well...
The first time I met little Sean, he was strangely certain you were unhappy living in the Neri house. He told me you were often sad and misunderstood it as you being unhappy with him...]
Lianna's breath hitched.
Her hands trembled ever so slightly, but she forced her fingers to steady, fighting the wave of emotions threatening to spill over.
A child's innocent misunderstanding.
Zahn noticed her expression falter and reached forward.
"What's wrong?" he asked, concern slipping into his tone as his hand moved toward hers.
Lianna snapped her head up and glared at him fiercely.
Zahn paused.
If Sean hadn't been present, she would have thrown the notebook at him.
Not wanting to scare her son, Lianna inhaled deeply, suppressing the complex of emotions burning through her veins.
"Nothing," she said, voice almost too calm. "I want to talk to Sean alone."
Zahn hesitated, confusion flashing across his face. "Why? Can't I stay and listen? We're both his parents, we should speak to him together."
Lianna let out a mocking smile, as if saying 'So you know all along you're his father?Where were you all this time?'
Zahn stiffened visibly.
"It's been a while since I last spent time with Sean. I want to be with him. Otherwise, since I'm stuck here, who knows when I'll see him again."
The implications hit Zahn like a slap, and each one struck deep. He felt unnecessary. Unwelcome.
Moreover, he's own selfishness was the reason she was stuck there.
Zahn's lips parted, wanting to argue, explain himself, anything, but at that moment, Sean tugged on his sleeve.
"I want to stay with Mom too," the boy whispered.
Clenching his jaw, he looked at Lianna intently, eyes dark with unspoken turmoil before silently turning and walking out.
The door clicked shut.
Silence settled.
Lianna lowered her gaze to the notebook again.
Yeri. It had to be Yeri.
But how did Yeri know she could read this language? Had she mentioned it before?
She couldn't remember.
But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was the truth hidden between those lines.