Chapter 4
When the smell of disinfectant hit my nostrils, I thought I was in hell.
“Awake?” The man with gold-rimmed glasses pushed his frames up. “I’m Eli, the psychiatrist. When we found you, you were three centimeters from death.”
My spine was broken into three pieces, and my left cheek had a deep gash from my brow bone to my jaw.
The person in the mirror looked like a piece of paper that had been crumpled and unfolded again.
“Want to change your face?” Eli tossed a stack of portraits at me. “My brother-in-law is a master in the plastic surgery world.”
I pointed to the sweetest-looking one.
“The less I look like myself, the better.”
Three surgeries later, the pain after the anesthesia wore off was enough to make someone bite their teeth to pieces.
On the day the bandages were removed, Eli handed me a mirror.
A stranger’s almond-shaped eyes, a rounded jawline, and two dimples when I smiled.
“New identity: Ivy.” He tossed me a USB drive. “A strategic consultant’s resume, even Jareth’s people won’t find any flaws.”
“Why help me?”
“My sister used to be his company’s auditor, and he forced her to swallow sleeping pills.” He smiled coldly. “Now it’s time for him to pay his debts.”
On my first day at Mark’s company, the tension in the conference room was palpable.
“Jareth, that old fox, the financial reports look like a fairy tale.” Someone slammed their fist on the table.
I tapped the projector. “Q3 travel expenses were inflated by 600,000.”
Mark looked up. “Evidence?”
I threw out the bank transaction records. “He used Lily’s secondary card for the charges, and the hotel records match.”
The room fell silent.
“And,” I flipped to the next page, “in the R&D expenses, there’s money mixed in for buying Lily an apartment.”
Mark whistled. “Nice.”
Eli brought a tape recorder every week.
The first time, it was Lily’s moans mixed with Jareth’s low growl: “Don’t touch me! You don’t smell like her!”
“Jareth~” Lily’s voice was sultry. “I’m so much better than Leina, the dead one. Does she suck on strawberries for you?”
“Shut up!” A sharp sound, like a slap, “Don’t mention her!”
The second recording, the background noise was hospital sounds.
Lily was crying: “The doctor said if you keep hurting yourself, your arm will be useless!”
“She used to bite my wrists, said it would calm me down…” Jareth’s voice was like sandpaper scraping metal. “Now no one’s biting.”
“I’ll bite!” Lily screamed, “I’ll bite for you!”
I threw the recorder back to Eli.
“He’s about to break.”
“Not enough.” Eli pushed over an acquisition case. “Mark wants you to handle the talks personally.”
On the day I went to Jareth’s company, I wore a white dress, the kind he used to hate.
When the receptionist tried to stop me, Lily just happened to walk out of the elevator, wearing my sapphire necklace — the one he had called "one-of-a-kind" when he proposed.
“Oh, so this is the new consultant from Mark?” She reached out to touch my face. “You look so innocent, what a shame…”
“What a shame?” I sidestepped, “What a shame you’re wearing someone else’s necklace, like you stole it?”
Lily’s face turned pale instantly.
In the conference room, Jareth was burning his arm with a cigarette.
“Jareth~” Lily lunged forward to grab his cigarette. “Guess who’s here?”
When he looked up, I purposely rolled up my sleeve.
The scar on my wrist was from when I blocked boiling water for him in college.
The cigarette fell to the floor as his eyes went blank.
“Who are you?”
“Get lost!” He flipped the table, documents scattering everywhere. “Leina’s stuff, do you think you can touch it?”
"Remember to be on time for tomorrow's negotiation." I walked away without looking back.
As I left the building, Eli sent a message: “Jareth locked Lily in his office, there’s quite a commotion.”
I looked up at the floor-to-ceiling windows on the top floor, where I once fell.
The Ivy in the mirror smiled back at herself.
