The day after I secured my spot in the university's doctoral program, a delivery guy showed up at the campus gates with a wailing infant. He swore the child was mine. I was horrified. I begged my boyfriend, Sebastian, a brilliant medical student himself, to clear my name. He glanced at the paternity test I frantically shoved at him, then turned to the gathering crowd with a look of gentle resignation. "Gabrielle," he said, his voice soft and forgiving. "Let the past be the past. I'm sure you didn't mean for this to happen." He sighed, a picture of benevolence. "I'll raise this child as if he were my own." In the aftermath, my acceptance into the doctoral program was revoked. The guys on campus started calling me "the campus bike" behind my back. That very night, my father's illegitimate daughter, Hannah, posted on her Instagram story, celebrating her own acceptance into the program. The caption read: "A real man gives you everything you ask for." The photo featured a collection of brand-new baby supplies. And there, just at the edge of the frame, was the unmistakable back of Sebastian's hand. It turned out I was just a pawn in their twisted game. 1 I stood on the blistering pavement, the sun beating down on me as the baby in my arms screamed relentlessly. Inside the house, a party was in full swing, celebrating Hannah's acceptance. And Sebastian was right there with them. He had always cultivated an air of gentle warmth, his handsome eyes always crinkling into a smile. Only I knew the cold indifference that lay beneath the surface. But now, looking through the window, I could see his joy was genuine. I called his phone. I saw him frown slightly before decisively rejecting the call. The second I posted a screenshot of Hannah's story to the university message board, my phone rang. "Gabrielle, where are you?" He emerged from the house, his face a dark cloud, clearly not wanting to spoil Hannah's mood. He saw me standing there, clutching the infant. In less than a minute, the link to the message board post was a dead "404 Not Found." Sebastian strode over, snatched the phone from my hand, and then his gaze fell on the baby. A flicker of annoyance crossed his otherwise gentle features. "You're just going to let him bake in the sun like this? What kind of mother are you?" "Sebastian," I began, my voice choking despite the lecture I’d given myself the whole way here. "I told you. If you ever stopped loving me, just tell me. I would have walked away on my own." Everyone at Blackwood University knew I was crazy about Sebastian. When he studied at the library, I'd get there at dawn to save us the best table by the window. When he was targeted by a vindictive professor who tried to steal his research, I leaked screenshots of the professor's sleazy DMs with another student to the campus forum. The university fired him immediately. When Sebastian needed funding for his project, I was the one who pulled strings, connecting him with investors, pouring my own money and resources into his work. His star had risen, and eventually, he’d agreed to be my boyfriend. I never cared if his love for me was a quiet, smoldering thing, as long as it was real and lasting. But it had to be love. Not guilt, not obligation, and certainly not reluctant acceptance. It had to be a love that was mine and mine alone. "You know perfectly well," I said, my voice trembling with rage, "that Hannah and her mother are the reason my own mother is dead. And you still let them pin this baby on me. For her, you were willing to watch my reputation, my entire future, be destroyed!" He looked at me, raising a hand as if to touch my face. I flinched away. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Gabrielle, why are you still holding onto this? Hannah is your sister, after all. Her child is practically your child." "Blood is thicker than water," he continued, his tone patient and condescending. "I don't want you two to be estranged over something so small." "Gabrielle, don't make this difficult. Don't make everyone uncomfortable, okay?" I stared at him, at his calm, handsome face, and the coldness of his words felt like a physical blow. Something small? The women who drove my mother to her grave. In Sebastian's eyes, that was just a small inconvenience to him. "Enough! She's an illegitimate child. She has no right to call me her sister!" I ignored the way his expression instantly hardened. "You and I both know this baby isn't mine. I'm giving you twenty-four hours to clear my name. If you don't, you'll see a side of me you won't like." With that, I thrust the crying baby into his arms and turned, walking away so fast he wouldn't see the tears finally streaming down my face. 2 I had been alive for twenty-four years, and I had only ever loved one person with every fiber of my being. And he had just handed me the most crushing defeat of my life. I waited all the next day. By evening, there was still no apology, no clarification. Instead, when I logged onto the campus forum, I saw a new post, marked with a blazing "VIRAL" tag. It was a video. Sebastian stood there in a tailored suit, Hannah beside him in a gown that I recognized as one of my own. They looked like a perfect couple. Sebastian adjusted his collar, holding the baby, and then faced Hannah with a grave expression, bowing deeply. "I am so sorry," he said, his voice ringing with sincerity for the camera. "Gabrielle's selfish and impulsive actions have caused you so much pain. On her behalf, I want to apologize." My post from yesterday had only been up for a few seconds before it was taken down, but in the world of the internet, a few seconds was all it took. The screenshots were everywhere. This video wasn't just an apology. It was a public execution of my character. After all, a doctoral candidate in medicine wouldn't misread a paternity test. My social media accounts became a war zone. I was flooded with messages from anonymous accounts asking "how much for a night." My old posts were littered with insults and slurs. I had no choice but to make all my accounts private. But none of that was what broke me. It was the necklace around Hannah's neck. It had belonged to my mother. I kept all of her jewelry locked away in my private apartment. Only one other person had a key: Sebastian. I was on my way to confront him when I cut through a secluded, wooded part of the campus. As I walked deeper into the trees, a pair of strong hands suddenly shoved me to the ground. The stench of alcohol filled the air. "You're that bitch who had a baby, right?" a slurred voice growled. "Act all innocent but you're a real freak, huh?" I screamed, struggling against him, but then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw them. Sebastian, who always carried himself with a cool, intellectual arrogance, was crouched down on the path, smiling as he tied Hannah's shoelace. My attacker followed my gaze and then slapped me hard across the face. "What are you looking at? You think a sweet, innocent girl like that is anything like a used-up slut like you?" The sight of them must have sobered him up, because he scrambled to his feet, cursed, and stumbled away. I clutched my burning cheek, shakily getting up. A wave of profound shame washed over me. All I wanted was to disappear, to get away before they could see me like this. "...Gabrielle?" The hesitant voice was like a thunderclap in my silent, shattered world. "It really is you." Sebastian walked around to face me, his brow furrowing as he took in my disheveled clothes. "I know the things people are saying at school are cruel, but you can't just give up on yourself like this. Have some self-respect." "Maybe she's just heartbroken," Hannah said, linking her arm through Sebastian's, a smug smile playing on her lips. "That's why she's out here in a place like this, looking for a cheap thrill." She tsked. "At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if she actually did get pregnant for real." Sebastian held out a bag of baby supplies. "I had the baby sent back to your place. Hannah bought you these. Make sure you take proper care of him." He paused, then held up his phone. "Or else... you wouldn't want anyone to see you looking like this, would you?" I stared at him, a cold dread creeping into my veins. I couldn't believe this was the man I had chased for five years. "If you understand, nod your head," he commanded. "There's a disciplinary hearing tomorrow morning. You know what to say and what not to say." He wrapped his arm around Hannah and they walked away, heading in the direction of the lab's victory party for their latest successful experiment. My face was a mask of cold fury as I pulled out my phone and made a call. If I was going to be miserable, then everyone was going to be miserable. 3 Almost no one knew that I was the largest private donor to this university. Ever since my mother died, while my father was off with his mistress, I had cut myself off from him emotionally. I left the Sinclair estate and struck out on my own. Fortunately, I had a gift for it. Under the pseudonym "Aura," I founded AuraGen Labs in record time, specializing in biotechnology and advanced medical materials. We were already big enough to compete with the established legacy corporations. In fact, the only reason Sebastian's latest medical experiment had been successful was because I was the one secretly funding it, supplying him with state-of-the-art equipment. "Terminate the contract," I said into the phone. "And I want every cent of funding and every piece of equipment I provided to Sebastian's lab recalled. Immediately." Let's see how long the poor boy from a small town can survive in this world of old money without my resources propping him up. Suddenly, my front door was kicked open. Sebastian stormed in, his face contorted with rage. Hannah followed meekly behind him, looking distressed. Before they could speak, I pointed to the maid who had let them in. "You're fired." To let someone in without my permission was to render the new high-security lock I’d just had installed completely useless. "You—" Sebastian sputtered, but Hannah was already comforting the maid in a soft voice. "Don't worry, you can come work for us at the Sinclair estate." Sebastian looked at me, his expression a mixture of anger and disappointment. "Look at Hannah, how gracious she is. And then look at you, petty and vindictive over every little thing. It's hard to tell who the real illegitimate one is here." A small smile touched Hannah's lips at his words before she quickly schooled her features into a look of timid concern. Seeing his precious darling look so vulnerable only fueled Sebastian's anger. "Tell me," he demanded, "why was the disciplinary hearing cancelled?" I didn't even bother to look up. "Because the administration bowed to the power of capital, obviously." The university president had nearly had a heart attack when he received my call. Terrified I would pull my funding, he had cancelled the ridiculous hearing without a second thought. But Sebastian and Hannah didn't know that. They assumed I had used my father's influence again. "You go back on your word, you manipulate everything… Gabrielle, you are such a disappointment!" Sebastian, who was always so calm and composed, was practically shouting. I'd never seen him this angry, not even when his junior researchers made critical errors in the lab. Suddenly, Hannah cried out and fell to the floor. The necklace—my mother's necklace—snapped, and the pearls scattered across the marble with a series of sharp clicks. The last tangible piece of my mother I had, now utterly destroyed. As I scrambled to pick up the pearls, Hannah leaned in close, her voice a venomous whisper. "If you had just cooperated, sister, I would have made sure the rest of her things remained untouched. But now, I can't make any promises." "Threatening me with a dead woman's possessions. That's all the power you have," I shot back, my voice dripping with contempt. Our family placed a high value on ancestry. Most of my mother's belongings were kept in the family mausoleum. I had already sent someone to retrieve them. Hannah's jaw tightened, but when she saw Sebastian looking, her face immediately melted back into a mask of sweet vulnerability. "Sister, I've been here for a while. Where's little Ben?" She looked around the apartment. "Auntie Hannah brought lots of presents for him." Without lifting my head, I pointed out the window. "The orphanage." 4 It was the first time I had ever seen Hannah truly lose her composure. She let out a piercing shriek, grabbing my collar and shaking me violently, a wild fury in her eyes. "How could you! How could you throw my... my nephew... in an orphanage! That's abandonment, do you know that?" I shoved her away, and she stumbled backward, collapsing onto the floor. Just then, the front door, which hadn't been properly closed, was thrown open again. A crowd of my classmates stormed in, rushing to help the sobbing Hannah. They glared at me with disgust. "I have never seen someone so shameless! You'd rather throw your own flesh and blood into an orphanage than take responsibility!" "That's right! We have to expose her for the monster she is!" someone shouted, pulling out their phone and starting a livestream, shoving the camera in my face. Before they could get a clear shot, a pair of bodyguards roughly pushed the phone away. "This is a private Sinclair family matter. It doesn't concern any of you." A stern-faced, middle-aged man strode into the room. My father. He swung his arm and slapped me hard across the face. "Having a daughter like you is the greatest shame of my life!" he roared. "Take this disgrace back to the family estate. I want to see how she dares to face her dead mother now!" At the family mausoleum, the elders were gathered. I stood before the marble crypts, my spine straight. "I have done nothing wrong. I will not kneel." My father was apoplectic. "You got pregnant out of wedlock, had a secret child, and made a spectacle of yourself for the whole world to see! You've dragged the company's name and my name through the mud, and you still claim you've done nothing wrong?" He gestured wildly. "Hannah adores you, Sebastian is a medical doctor! Do you think they would both lie and conspire against you?" As we stood in a standoff, Hannah's eyes darted around. She picked up a thin, braided leather whip that was kept for "disciplinary purposes" and handed it to Sebastian. "Sebastian," she purred. "You're the only one who can make my sister see her error." She kicked the back of my knees, forcing me to the ground. Sebastian hesitated for a second, but under my father's furious glare, he raised the whip and brought it down across my back. A line of fire tore across my skin. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, refusing to cry out. Hannah shot me a dissatisfied look and whispered something to my father. A terrible premonition washed over me. "Gabrielle," my father bellowed, "for the disgraceful things you have done, I will overlook them out of paternal affection. But your mother can no longer be buried here, in the family's hallowed ground!" He waved his hand. "Dig her up!" I stared in disbelief. They were going to desecrate her grave? They were going to deny her peace even in death. Hannah knew I had retrieved my mother's heirlooms, so now she was going for the one thing I couldn't protect. "Don't you dare!" I fought with every ounce of strength I had, trying to break free from the two guards holding me down. The whip fell on my back again and again, a storm of pain. I struggled to my feet, only to be knocked down again. "Gabrielle, just admit it was you," Sebastian panted, his forehead beaded with sweat. I could see a flicker of pity in his eyes as he looked at my wounds. His hand was shaking so badly he could barely hold the whip. "Just say you're sorry, and I'll talk to your father for you." "I said," I screamed through the agony, "I did nothing wrong!" I watched in horror as Hannah picked up my mother's portrait and smashed it on the stone floor. The groundskeepers had already dug a gaping hole in the earth. They pulled out the small, velvet box containing her ashes and tossed it between them like a piece of trash. My vision turned red. I slammed my body into Sebastian, knocking him aside, and lunged for Hannah just as she was about to throw the box. We collided, and in the struggle, the lid came off. A fine grey dust scattered in the wind, sweeping over me in a soft, final arc. Like one last embrace from my mother. "Oops, my hand slipped," Hannah said with a smirk. The box shattered on the ground. The ashes were gone. As I knelt there, broken and covered in dirt, a group of police officers entered the grounds. "Who called the police?" my father demanded. Hannah glanced at me triumphantly. "I did, officer," she said, walking toward them. "This woman abandoned her newborn child!" An officer with a grim face approached me. "Ma'am, is this true?" A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I pushed myself up, my body screaming in protest, and pulled a folded, blood-stained paper from my pocket. "That would be difficult," I said, my voice shaking. "Seeing as I don't have a uterus."
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