About

October 16th was the day he chose her. Life at the orphanage was always the same endless routine. Every day, the children would hope someone would finally take them home. She was no different—yesterday, today, and what she assumed would be tomorrow, just another cycle in the waiting game. Then his eyes found her. Ten years later, she'd been living at his side without any obvious problems. A sprawling, comfortable home, everything she could ever want, a life anyone would kill for. There were no problems. At least, none that showed on the surface. But sometimes he'd do things that made her skin crawl. Like he was weaving invisible chains around her, link by link. Every word he spoke, every lingering glance made her feel trapped in a web she couldn't see. The word 'gaslighting' would flicker through her mind, only to be smoothed away by his honeyed whispers. "No one has ever loved me before. You have to understand me." She tried to understand him. Maybe this was just some delayed emotional neediness. Maybe he simply wanted to lean on the only person he'd found after years of isolation. He was a third-generation heir, a chairman whose name commanded respect worldwide. Being chosen by someone like him should have been the luckiest break of her life. At eighteen, she was still in high school, living like any normal student. Then one day, a stupid argument snowballed all the way to the principal's office. What started as petty drama had somehow dragged the adults into it. When her teacher said to bring her parents, her mind went completely blank. She had absolutely no idea how the hell she was supposed to handle this.