Emotions are so overwhelming that love has dissipated
Chapter 1
“You’re truly going to marry into the Henry family in Sophie’s place? To that lunatic who got shot and turned into a eunuch?!”
The assistant, who had assumed she was here once again fishing for news about Richard, brightened instantly. As if afraid she might change her mind, he quickly shoved the contract into Nova’s hands.
“Wonderful! You’re finally doing something useful for Mr. Richard instead of adding to his troubles. I’ll call him right now with the good—”
“No.” Nova cut him off, a sarcastic smile tugging at her lips. “Don’t tell him yet. Let it be a surprise.” She paused, letting the silence hang. “I’m not fulfilling his wish for free. If I’m marrying Henry in Sophie’s place, I expect something in return.”
The assistant’s pleased expression vanished, replaced by open disdain. “Miss Sophie was practically raised by your father. Can’t you show her a little kindness, too?”
“The daughter of a servant?” Nova’s laugh was cold. “She’s not worthy of my kindness. My father gave his life to save her. Now I’m sacrificing my marriage. Is that not enough? Must everyone in the Nova family die for her before it counts as ‘kindness’?”
The assistant sputtered, his face flushing with anger.
Nova scoffed, her gaze drifting out the window toward the skyscraper by the river. “The old Nova Group headquarters, plus ten billion. Consider it my dowry.”
His pupils contracted in shock. “Mr. Richard spent ten years of blood, sweat, and tears just to move out of that building! All our core data is still there. You’re asking for our foundation!”
“So Richard doesn’t care for Sophie that much after all.” Nova shrugged. “No deal, then.”
Growing impatient, she turned to leave. But the assistant, steeling himself, blocked her path.
The Henrys had wealth and power that drew crowds, but Henry himself was a ruthless madman! Ever since that night, his moods had grown even more unpredictable. How could Miss Sophie be subjected to that?
Gritting his teeth, the assistant gave a tight nod. “Fine!”
Within minutes, a new contract was in Nova’s hands.
She signed without hesitation and stood to leave. The assistant watched her, a strange look in his eyes. “Have you really let go of Mr. Richard? How can you suddenly bring yourself to marry someone else?”
Nova didn’t look back. The heavy slam of the door was her only reply.
*Let go?*
Driving back to the villa, Nova found the study door slightly ajar. Through the gap, she could hear Richard’s voice—gentle, magnetic—as he taught Sophie how to write.
His face held a tenderness she had never seen. He stood behind Sophie, his arms wrapped tightly around her, leaving no space between them. Intimate.
She remembered when Richard had taught *her* to write. He’d never held her hand to demonstrate. Never wasted a word. Only the ruler, striking her palm again and again, never softening even when her skin bruised and swelled.
Grief welled up; tears spilled over. Nova’s nails dug deep into her palms.
*Ten whole years. How could I just let go?*
After her father died saving his secretary’s daughter, Sophie, only his adopted son, Richard, remained by her side.
In that abyss of despair, he held up her sky. Slowly, her dependence on him turned to love.
When Richard needed money, she gave him every penny of her savings.
When he needed connections and influence, she brought her father’s old associates to him.
Even when he was drugged and needed a woman, she offered herself.
Richard took the money, the power, the people. He took her.
But when the sun rose again, he had frozen over once more.
She thought he just didn’t know how to express love. That decades together meant he loved her, in his own way.
Then, one night, jolted awake by a nightmare, she went to the memorial hall to mourn her father. There, she saw Richard pinning Sophie against the altar table, kissing her deeply.
“We shouldn’t… What if the young mistress sees? She’s from the main family, beautiful, with a perfect figure. She adores you. I’m just a servant’s daughter—I can’t compare.”
Richard’s voice was thick with desire. “So what if she sees? Even if she stood naked before me, she couldn’t excite me the way a single glance from you does.”
“Once I’ve seized control of the Nova Group, once I make Nova lose everything, just like she lost her father… Once my revenge is complete, I can marry you…”
Nova froze, plunged into an icy void. She stood there, numb, watching the altar shake, watching a foul wetness stain her father’s portrait.
The love she’d believed in shattered in that instant. Countless overlooked details became a thousand cuts.
The affection she thought was real had been a lie. The companionship she cherished was long-planned revenge. Even the truth of her father’s death was shrouded in fog!
From the moment she stopped loving Richard, Nova had planned everything.
First—to reclaim all that was hers!
With that thought, Nova lifted her gaze and kicked the study door wide open—
A sharp, stabbing pain dragged Nova from the darkness.
The acrid sting of disinfectant filled her nose. She had barely twitched her right leg when a nurse’s voice snapped out, “Don’t move! The donor skin graft just finished. Your wound isn’t healed yet!”
“…What?!”
But before the nurse could explain, another call bell rang, pulling her away. Alone in the sterile room, Nova was left with shock and agony twisting inside her.
The door stood ajar. From the hallway, hushed, gossiping whispers slithered in.
“The man in the next room is so tall and handsome! He’s been doting on his girlfriend all night—so attentive.”
“Right? His girlfriend just burned the soles of her feet a little, and he gave her the most delicate skin from his own sister’s inner thigh. Now that’s true love!”
Nova wished she could black out again. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Just then, the door swung open. Richard walked in. Seeing the cold sweat of pain on her forehead, a flicker of something rare—guilt, perhaps—crossed his face.
“There was a fire yesterday,” he said, his voice flat. “You and Sophie were both burned. Your leg was severe. Hers was just her foot.”
He paused, then added coolly, “You’ll have scars anyway. What’s one more? So I had a little taken for Sophie.”
Nova stared, disbelief freezing her in place. She couldn’t fathom the sheer audacity.
“Richard. How dare you take my skin for someone else without even asking me?”
“I know you’re kind,” Richard said, his tone softening into placation. “You’re the Nova heiress. You have access to countless private doctors and medicines worth millions. You can afford the best care. Sophie… she doesn’t have any of that—”
“What does that have to do with me?!”
The vase on the bedside table flew past Richard, smashing against the wall behind him. The IV needle tore from the back of her hand, ballooning the skin and welling with blood.
Richard froze. He looked at the tears she refused to let fall, and a strange discomfort twisted in his gut.
“Stop this,” he said, his voice tight. “Haven’t you always complained I never have time for you? I’ll take care of you properly while you recover.”
A cold, bitter laugh escaped Nova. A tear finally fell, splashing onto the thick bandages wrapping her thigh.
“Isn’t this just because you know I loved you?” Her voice was low, venomous. “Know your place, Richard.”
She sat upright in the bed, sunlight outlining her rigid silhouette. “You’re just a stray my father picked up to look after me. What right do you have to say such things?”
For years, she had been the one forbidding anyone from looking down on him. This was the first time she had ripped open their bloody past and used her status to crush him.
“You let them force-feed me drinks and grope me. You left me alone to burn in that fire. And now you take my skin without my consent.”
Her gaze hardened. “Richard. By family law, how many strikes do you deserve?”
Richard stared, stunned. His fists clenched, knuckles cracking with a sickening sound.
He took one step back. Then, with spine-straight precision, he knelt on the floor before her.
“…Three.”
His kneeling was decisive, yet it felt like a physical weight crashing onto Nova’s chest, stealing her breath.
Richard was so much more than just a foster son.
The formidable Mr Richard, for Sophie’s sake, was willing to kneel—to sacrifice his dignity and accept punishment.
All her misplaced love and festering hate condensed into her bleeding right hand. Nova raised it and brought it down in a vicious slap—
“Ah!”
