She poured out her heart to Seth, telling him how much she missed him. But the


    man sitting across from her didn''t respond. His gaze was dark and inscrutable, even cold. Even then, Bianca didn''t think much of it, assuming it was just the


    inappropriate setting.


    So she reined in her emotions, though her eyes remained red-rimmed. "You must have had a hard time too, right?"


    She knew the situation wasplicated, but she believed that as long as Seth was here, any problem could be solved. It was only a matter of time before she got out.


    "Oh, right. Awyer named Coley just told me they''ve added several new felony financial charges, but he didn''t say who filed them. Seth, you should look into itter, find out who''s suing me."


    Bianca chattered on. There was so much she wanted to tell him, but the setting forced her to be brief and stick to the important points.


    "I filed them."


    The silent man suddenly spoke. His voice was neither loud nor soft, but it was clear enough for her to hear.


    Bianca froze, her face a mask of disbelief.


    "Your arrest, that was my n too."


    "Your mother, your aunt, and your cousin getting caught—I orchestrated that as well."


    "Of course, if they hadn''t broken thew, I wouldn''t have had the opportunity to put them in here. So, in the end, they only have themselves to me for their downfall."


    "And so do you."


    Seth''s voice waspletely calm as he said these words, as if he were speaking to a perfect stranger-emotionless and detached.


    But each sentence was a fatal blow to Bianca. The hope in her heart was crushed, ground into dust, and trampled under his feet.


    Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at him, as if seeing a stranger for the first time. The man she believed loved her so deeply... it was all a lie.


    All of it!


    Was there anything real in this world?


    "I suggest you stop struggling. Plead guilty and don''t waste your time with any more pointless resistance."


    Seth''s tone was cid, but his words were the cruelest she had ever heard.


    Bianca stared at him, stunned,


    seeing on his face the most


    indifferent expression she had ever


    witnessed in that moment, alther


    hopes shattered against the


    boundless coldness in his eyes.


    With herst ounce of strength, she asked the question that burned in her heart. "Why?"


    Hadn''t he loved her for years? Hadn''t he always treated her as the one he could never forget? Didn''t that mean something special to a man?


    So why? Why would he do this to her?


    Seth merely nced at her. "Do you think you''re innocent?"


    "That boy who had a bright future ahead of him, whom you falsely used of attempted rape, who was driven to suicide out of despaif, whose entire family was destroyed-he was the innocent one."


    зим


    "Noreen, whose academic credentials you stole and whose bright future you ruined -she was the innocent one."


    "The unborn child you aborted—that was the innocent one."


    "The couple who jumped to their deaths after you defrauded them with high-interest loans they were the innocent ones."


    "Compared to them, you have no right to use the word innocent!"


    Bianca stared at him in horror. In that instant, her entire world turned to dust.


    "So, you never loved me at all?" The question was a desperate whisper.


    "Not even for a moment?"


    He sneered, his voice chilling. "Never."


    The simple reply was enough to make her heart turn to ash. Her eyes


    stung, and a profound, Deep


    sense of powerlessness washed over her. Her thoughts were a chaotic meso, unable to pinpoint when Seth had started nning all of this.