"So tomorrow... you're not coming."
"The venue has been notified of the sudden change of the events. Your family is handling the guests. My family will cover all expenses. We'll release a joint statement to the press...."
"A statement?" A broken laugh escaped her. "You're managing my heartbreak like a corporate merger. Zeyan, do I look like a business?"
"Shuyin...."
She heard it then, a soft, familiar giggle in the background. It was her stepsister. She was there, with him, as he delivered the killing blow. They have been planning this entire time to humiliate and embarrass her.
"I have to go," Zeyan said quickly. "I truly am sorry. I hope, in time, you can find it in you to forgive me. Perhaps... we can even be friends."
"Friends?" The word was ash in her mouth.
"I'm ending the call now. Take care of yourself." And just like that, the screen went black.
Shuyin sat frozen, the silence of the room pressing in on her, a physical weight.
She was all alone, utterly and completely alone. The life she had known, the future she had built in her mind, had evaporated in a five-minute phone call.
Still holding that phone, she called that number she was familiar with, but now, the phone was switched off and she only received a mechanical response... The number was out of service.
An involuntary moan of agony rose from somewhere primal inside her. She barely made it to the bathroom before her stomach revolted, as though her body itself refused to accept what had happened.
When the retching finally ceased, she lay against the unforgiving marble, her expensive nightgown plastered to her trembling form by a mixture of cold sweat and hot tears.
From where she lay, she could hear voices drifting from downstairs. Her family was probably still awake, plotting, planning, and spinning the narrative of her ruin.
She couldn't believe that they had known this entire time...
For three days, they had looked her in the eye and lied, they had watched her run up and down arranging things that won't happen! How could they be this cruel to her?
What did she do to deserve this?
Her sorrow twisted inward, metamorphosing into something frigid and unforgiving, a seething, patient anger.
She gripped the counter and pulled herself upright despite her shaking knees. The face that looked back at her from the dim mirror was almost unrecognizable: eyes that once held light now glittered with something dark and resolute.
The beautiful, delicate doll was gone, and in its place was a woman scorned. And she would not go quietly into the night they had prepared for her.
Shuyin stared at her reflection, the cold marble seeping through her silk gown. The woman in the mirror had hollow eyes and a trembling mouth.
She roughly wiped her mouth...
They knew, they all knew... The thought echoed, growing louder until it became a scream in her mind.
She pushed herself up, her legs unsteady. The rage that had been simmering now boiled over, hot and blinding.
She had to find them. She had to see the lies on their faces herself, she had to hear from their damn mouths!
She burst out of her room, not caring about her disheveled appearance rushing through the corridor like a mad woman.
The mansion was quiet, too quiet for a night when the family would have an event tomorrow. She ran down the grand staircase, her bare feet slapping against the cold marble.
"Father!" Her voice echoed throughout the empty hall calling for him desperately, "Father, where are you?"
"Father...."
She rushed through the stairs, pushing the servants who were moving around away in an uncaring manner. She didn't care about anything.
At the ground floor, through the corridor, she got over to the study room door, and she pushed open the doors to his study room.
But it was all empty, not only empty, it felt like the person hadn't stepped in there for the last week. The desk was clean, and his computer was gone.
She ran to her stepmother's bedroom, their shared main bedroom, and all was the same. The perfumed air lingered slightly mixed with house fragrances, but the room was dark and still....
It seemed like they hadn't been around for the day.
A growing dread tightened her in her chest. She rushed to Yueling's suite, throwing the doors open but it was the same.
The walk-in closets were half-empty. The vanity, usually cluttered with expensive creams and makeup, was bare, and nothing showed she had been around.
That sound was definitely her, it was her.....
"No," she whispered, her breath coming in ragged pants as she weakly staggered. "No, no, no..."
She ran through the entire west wing, her panic rising with each empty room, searching for them. The mansion felt like a beautiful, hollow shell, like she was the only one present and probably the only living human left in that mansion.