MasukKara opened her mouth, but no words came out.Victor continued calmly. "According to your story, the two of you were simply people who loved each other. Then how did Tara become Adrian's wife? Do you expect me to ignore the most important part of all this?"He paused for a moment. "Then you said you had no choice." Victor slowly shook his head with a cynical click of his tongue. "No. There is always a choice. What never existed was the courage to tell the truth."The room fell silent once again."You chose to keep your relationship a secret. You chose to keep Liora's birth a secret. And then..." Victor let out a quiet breath. His eyes never left Kara's face. "You also chose to let Tara live a life built on lies."The room fell silent again. That silence felt even more suffocating than a heated argument.Victor leaned back against the sofa and folded his hands in his lap. His expression remained calm, but the disappointment in his eyes was impossible to conceal."I don't know if there'
Kara clenched her teeth. She had come all this way. There was no way she was leaving without seeing Victor. "Please tell him this is important.""I already have," the butler replied. "And his answer remains the same."Kara balled both hands into fists. For a moment, she truly ran out of options. But just as she was about to insist again, the sound of a car engine came from the distance.Everyone instinctively turned to look. A black luxury sedan slowly entered the villa grounds through another gate.Kara's heart began to pound faster. That car... wasn't that Victor's?The opportunity had presented itself right before her eyes. Ignoring the security guards' stares, Kara immediately walked toward the car that had just come to a stop.The rear door opened, and the man Kara had come to see stepped out calmly.He was still dressed in a perfectly tailored suit even though evening was beginning to fall. The moment he saw Kara standing several yards in front of him, he paused.Their eyes met.
The words came out as little more than a whisper, but they were enough to strengthen the resolve growing inside her once again.Her gaze slowly drifted around the park. Several families were enjoying the afternoon with happy faces. A father lifted his daughter high into the air, making the little girl burst into laughter. Not far away, a mother bent down to fix her daughter's hair before taking her hand and walking away.That simple scene felt like a thorn piercing Kara's chest.She imagined herself in that woman's place. Holding Liora's hand, listening to her daughter's laughter, spending the afternoon together without the fear of losing her. All of that should have been hers.But every time that image appeared, Tara's face always replaced her.That woman again. Always Tara.Kara clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms. She refused to believe that Liora had pulled away because of her. In her mind, there was only one conclusion that made sense.Tara had taken everything
The taxi door slammed shut a little harder than it should have. The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror but chose not to say anything when he saw the anger written all over his passenger's face."Aries Park in the city center," Kara said curtly.The taxi pulled away from the school.Throughout the ride, Kara kept her arms tightly crossed as though trying to contain something boiling inside her chest. But the harder she tried to control her emotions, the more vividly the events from just minutes ago replayed in her mind.Liora had cried and hidden behind Tara. Even worse was the way she had looked at Kara—with such wariness. And most infuriating of all, Liora had refused to go with her. She had rejected her without hesitation, even though they had once been so close.Every time Kara visited, the little girl would run to greet her. Especially when Kara brought expensive gifts and didn't forbid her from doing as many things as Tara did with all her rules.But what had happe
Liora was still clinging tightly to Tara, as though she was afraid the woman might suddenly disappear. Her tiny hands gripped Tara's clothes, while her little face remained buried against the shoulder of the woman, she had always called her mother.Kara stopped several meters away from them. Her gaze shifted between Tara and Liora. For a brief moment, her expression tightened when she saw that her daughter showed no sign of wanting to go to her."Liora," she called, forcing a smile. "I'm here to pick you up. Don't you miss me? I've missed you so much, Liora."The little girl lifted her head for a moment. Her eyes met Kara's only briefly before she hugged Tara even more tightly."I don't want to."That short answer made Kara's smile freeze."Come on, sweetheart." She forced her voice to remain gentle as she began walking toward Tara and Liora. "From now on, I'll be the one taking care of you."Liora shook her head more firmly. "I only want to be with Mommy Tara."The innocent words ran
The question left Tara silent once again.Her gaze fell back to the brown folder still resting on her lap. The documents inside felt far heavier than ordinary sheets of paper. As though the entire weight of the last five years of her life now rested there.She let out a long breath."Before this," her voice was still hoarse, "I only wanted Adrian to pay for lying to me."A faint smile touched her lips, but there wasn't the slightest warmth in it."I took back what should have been mine. His position. His authority. The trust of the people he had spent all these years building." Tara lowered her head for a moment. "At the time, I thought that was enough."Vivian continued listening without interrupting."But now," Tara slowly shook her head, "I've realized those lies were far greater than I ever imagined."Her eyes burned again. "I wasn't just deceived." Her voice grew even softer. "I was chosen and placed there to live a life according to the plan they had already laid out. And once t
“How is she?” Tara asked.There was worry in her eyes—soft, aching, unmistakable. She stepped forward the moment the door to her room opened, as if she had been waiting for this exact second.Adrian paused, caught off guard. He hadn’t expected her to still be awake. He had assumed she’d gone to bed
Dinner that evening unfolded exactly as Tara had expected Kara was there too.Normally, Tara would have welcomed her sister’s presence with genuine warmth. Whenever their parents joined them, the house would feel livelier filled with conversation and laughter. Though often, those conversations revo
Victor sat calmly in the back seat, as though the conversation that had just taken place between him and Tara had been nothing significant. But for Tara, it had taken immense courage, along with the sacrifice of her pride, to say those words aloud.For a long moment, she watched him through the rea
The road stretched ahead, quiet and almost eerily calm. Tara drove at a steady pace, the traffic lights shifting from red to green as cars moved along in an orderly rhythm. The afternoon sky was clear—bright, almost indifferent.Nothing likes her.Inside the car, it felt as though a storm had settl







