Chapter 1
Five years ago, Celia Fairborne was in a devastating car accident while trying to save her family, leaving her in a coma.
Five years later, when she finally woke up, her world had been turned upside down.
Her parents and brother had taken in an adopted daughter–Mireya Quinn. They showered Mireya with affection, and even Aurelian Graves, Celia’s childhood sweetheart and fiancé, seemed completely captivated by her.
“We brought Mireya home because she reminded us so much of you,” they explained. “Having her around… it kinda made us feel like we hadn’t lost all of you.”
But Celia couldn’t take it anymore–she flat–out demanded they get Mireya out of the house.
Then tragedy struck. On the way to take Mireya to her new placement, their car crashed. Her parents and Mireya were killed instantly.
From that moment on, her brother Silas Fairborne and Aurelian’s love for Celia turned to bitter hatred.
“Three people are dead because of you!” they snapped. “All because of your stupid, jealous pride! They’d still be here if you hadn’t pushed them away!”
They tormented her, made her pay for what they saw as her cruelty. And she accepted it all, believing she deserved their punishment.
Three years of their abuse left her broken in every way imaginable. Then came the final blow–stage four cancer. Dr. Morrow delivered the verdict: she had less than a month to live.
But as she wandered through Manhattan in a daze, she passed by the windows of an upscale hotel restaurant and froze.
There, gathered around a table, were her supposedly dead parents, Silas, and Aurelian–celebrating Mireya’s birthday. Mireya sat there wearing a tiara, glowing like a princess.
Celia stood outside, thunderstruck.
Before she could process what she was seeing, she heard Aurelian’s voice: “She’s had it rough enough already. Like, are we seriously still doing this?”
Silas chuckled, cutting into his steak. “Let’s give it till her birthday next month. A bit more misery might finally get her head straight–maybe then she won’t be so quick to shove Mireya out.”
Her mother Millicent sighed, though she didn’t sound particularly sympathetic. “She’s just too stubborn. Sometimes, tough love’s the only thing that gets through to people.”
His father Conrad raised his wine glass with satisfaction. “Well, looks like our little act did the trick. No way she’ll go after Mireya again after this.”
Celia stood frozen in the shadows, her whole body going numb the second she heard those words.
It was all a lie.
They weren’t dead. They had orchestrated an elaborate hoax–faking their own deaths just to break her spirit and force her to accept Mireya.
The bitter irony wasn’t lost on her.
Her own parents, her brother, and Aurelian–the man who had promised to love her forever–had played the cruelest game imaginable, all for the sake of their precious adopted daughter.
But they didn’t know the truth.
They planned to “resurrect” themselves in a month, expecting a tearful reunion and her grateful acceptance of Mireya.
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Killed Me for Your Precious Angel? Now Pray She Can Save You from Hell
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Chapter 1
She’d be dead long before they could end their twisted charade.
The scene inside was warm and joyful, but Celia couldn’t stomach another second of it. She stumbled away from the hotel, her mind flooded with three years of nightmares.
Every single day for three years, she’d lived with crushing guilt. She’d wake up screaming from dreams of that burning car, of her parents crying for help in the flames, of Mireya’s terror–filled eyes staring back at her.
So she’d never said no to their punishments. She took everything Aurelian and Silas threw at her, believing she deserved it all.
She let Aurelian wrap his hands around her throat night after night, hissing “You killed them” as she gasped for air.
She endured Silas forcing her to kneel in the memorial hall for three straight days and nights.
She wrote “I’m sorry” thousands of times until her fingers bled raw–because they demanded it.
And it was all a lie. Every last bit of it.
She barely made it home before collapsing, blood spattering across the entryway. In the bathroom, she hunched over the toilet as blood and tears poured out of her. Her hands shook as she dry–swallowed painkillers, and she’d barely managed to clean up the mess when the door slammed open.
“I called you a hundred times. What is this? Playing dead to get sympathy?” Silas stood in the doorway, his face cold as stone. “Trying to skip out on today’s penance?”
Aurelian appeared behind him, frowning. “What the hell are you doing on the floor?”
Celia didn’t answer. She just looked up at them with hollow eyes. “What do you want me to atone for today?”
The two men exchanged a look. “Head over to the north side,” Aurelian said with casual indifference. “Pick up some osmanthus cakes for Raya.”
Celia let out a bitter laugh.
Raya… Raya Quinn.
The woman Aurelian and Silas had brought home a month after “Mireya’s death” was the spitting image of Mireya. Back then, Celia had been naive enough to think they’d found some look–alike to help with their grief.
Now she understood.
What replacement? It was Mireya all along–they didn’t even bother hiding it. Just slapped a new name on her and called it a day.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
Celia was too drained to fight anymore. She was dying anyway–what was the point?
The osmanthus cake shop on the north side meant a two–hour wait. She stood there swaying in the blazing sun, black spots dancing across her vision.
First trip back: “These are stone cold.”
Second trip: “Way too sweet.”
Third trip: “The shape looks awful.”
By the seventh trip, she finally got the “perfect” cakes, only to get sideswiped by a scooter on the way home. The rider took off, leaving her to drag her bleeding legs back to the house.
“Your osmanthus cakes.” Celia held out the bag to Raya.
“Blood!” Raya opened the box and let out a piercing scream. “There’s blood all over them!”
Aurelian and Silas came running. The second they appeared, Raya threw herself into their arms, tears streaming. “Aurelian! Silas! If she didn’t want to
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Killed Me for Your Precious Angel? Now Pray She Can Save You from Hell
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Chapter 1
get them for me, she could’ve just said so! Why did she have to ruin them with blood to mess with me?”
Both men’s expressions turned murderous after seeing the bloodstained cakes,
“Did you do this on purpose?” Aurelian’s voice was deadly quiet.
Celia slumped against the wall, her legs still throbbing from the hit–and–run. “No… I got hit by a scooter on the way back. The blood just got on them.”
“Hit by a scooter?” Silas let out a cold laugh and strode over. “Do I look stupid to you? If you’d actually been in an accident, you wouldn’t be standing here talking.”
He grabbed her wrist roughly. “Since you love making up stories, let’s make this one real. James, Cole–get her outside. Now.”
The two bodyguards seized Celia by the arms and dragged her out like dead weight. Her knees scraped raw against the stone path, but no one gave a
damn.
On the back lawn, Aurelian and Silas were already in their black Maybach, engine growling like a beast ready to pounce.
“Aurelian… Silas…” she struggled to stand. “I’m not lying-”
The car was already speeding toward her.
BANG!
Pain exploded through every bone in her body. Celia went flying like a ragdoll, hitting the grass yards away. Blood poured from her mouth as consciousness slipped away.
When she finally came to, the sharp smell of antiseptic filled her nose. She cracked her eyes open, the harsh hospital lights making her head pound.
“How is there so much blood?” Aurelian’s voice carried from the hallway, tight with something that might have been panic. “We barely touched her!”
“I know,” Silas sounded shaken. “We pulled back at the last second.”
Dr. Morrow’s weary voice cut through their confusion. “The patient is in end–stage cancer. The disease has metastasized throughout her body. An impact like that… you’ve essentially fast–tracked her death.”
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