?Chapter 1418:


    Suddenly, Maia’s sleeping face tightened, her brows knitting together. Her mind drifted through a dense, suffocating fog that pinned her in ce, leaving her powerless and breathless.


    Then something split open in the darkness. A blinding light surged in.


    mes. Smoke. A roaring inferno engulfed everything around her.


    Maia found herself alone in a banquet hall consumed by fire. Shadowy figures flickered at the edges of her vision, their outlines warped by the heat until they dissolved like fading memories. She wanted to move, to run, but her feet felt fused to the floor. Voices called her name from somewhere beyond the inferno, yet the roar of the mes devoured every sound, leaving only faint, hollow echoes.


    “Are you Maia too?” a soft voice asked.


    Despite its gentleness, the question pierced straight through her heart like an icy needle. Maia turned toward it.


    There, wavering in the firelight, stood a small figure — her younger self. The ponytail was neat, the dark eyes bright. She clutched a workbook to her chest, standing timidly by a doorway.


    “I got first ce in ss today,” little Maia whispered, her voice fragile with hope. “Will Mom and Dad praise me?”


    In the next moment, the mes surged and swallowed the child’s delicate outline. In her ce, Richard’s indifferent figure materialized. He stood at his desk without so much as ncing back. “I’m busy right now. I don’t have time for this.”


    “Maia, stop bothering us!” From the sofa, Sandra flippedzily through a fashion magazine, her expression heavy with irritation. “We expect you to do well — that’s why we pay for tutors. Stop making a fuss. Running over here for every tiny thing… can’t you see we’re upied?”


    The scene warped again, like water disturbed by a falling stone.


    Young Maia stumbled after a tall figure. Ahead of her walked a young Jarrod — cold, distant. Abruptly, he spun around, annoyance shing across his face. “Give me some space. Stop following me. You’re so irritating. Stay away from me.”


    Darkness closed in once more, thick and suffocating — then suddenly split apart.


    Everything copsed. At the center of the wreckage stood young Maia, alone, tears carving silent trails down her face. Her lips trembled as she whispered, barely audible, “But… I just wanted you to notice me.”


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    Nearby, the distorted shadows of Richard, Sandra, and Jarrod loomedrge against the fire, but none of their eyes ever truly settled on her. A searing ache branded Maia’s chest, so sharp she couldn’t make a sound — as though an invisible hand had closed around her throat.


    She knew it was a dream, yet the cold sting of being ignored felt painfully, undeniably real.


    Maia fought to wake herself, thrashing and struggling, but her consciousness felt submerged, trapped in quicksand.


    Then the mes dimmed. The scene stretched and shifted into a long corridor from her high school days, sunlight streaming warm through the windows.


    Vince walked past her, unhurried, his white shirt spotless. He paused, turned back, and offered her a gentle smile — one touched with rare, quiet approval.


    “Maia, you did an amazing job,” he said, his voice clear as a bell.


    Just a simplepliment, yet it lit a smallmp in her endless darkness — dim, but enough to warm a corner of her world. For the first time, teenage Maia felt seen. Acknowledged.


    But the warmthsted only a breath. The scene splintered like ss struck hard. Vince’s kind smile fractured before it could fully form, cracking like delicate porcin, then shattering into countless jagged pieces that fell onto the scorched ground with a sharp hiss. Reflected in the shards was Vince’s face — still wearing the ghost of a smile, but now twisted with cold derision.


    “You idiot,” he sneered. “I was lying.”


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