Chapter 2

Back at the apartment Tristan and I shared, I immediately pulled out my suitcase and started packing.

Just then, my phone on the nightstand started buzzing like crazy. It was my best friend, Chloe.

"Sienna! Check the academy's internal forum right now! The preliminary shortlist for the Spring Exhibition is out. Your Flowers of the Abyss series... why the hell is it under Blair's name?!"

I froze, my mind going completely blank for a split second.

"What did you just say?"

"See for yourself! Not just the name, but your entire core design concept statement was copy-pasted directly under Blair's portfolio! How dare she blatantly steal your work?!"

I hung up and opened the academy forum with trembling hands.

There on the screen, my Flowers of the Abyss series—the project I had poured countless sleepless nights into, revised over a hundred times, and planned to use to secure an offer from a top design firm—was prominently displayed on Blair's profile.

The comment section was flooded with praise from classmates and amazement from our professors.

And my name was nowhere to be found.

These design drafts had been locked in my drawer. Besides me, only one person knew they existed, and only one person had the key to that drawer.

Tristan.

I stormed out of the apartment and hailed a cab straight to Blair's luxury condo. I knew that after tonight's "engagement party," they would definitely head there.

When I arrived, the door was ajar. Blair's coquettish voice and Tristan's laughter drifted from inside.

They both froze when they saw me barge in.

"Sienna? What are you doing here?" Tristan frowned, his tone laced with obvious impatience.

I ignored him and shoved my phone screen directly in their faces.

"Explain this," I demanded, staring dead into Tristan's eyes. "Why did my Flowers of the Abyss suddenly become Blair's work?"

Tristan glanced at the screen. Not a single trace of guilt crossed his face; instead, he leaned back against the sofa with an air of absolute righteousness.

"You're here over this little thing?" He let out a scoff. "Sienna, are you seriously making a fuss over this?"

"This little thing?!" I raised my voice, pointing at the screen. "That is three months of my blood, sweat, and tears! It's my core portfolio for the Spring Exhibition! And you stole it to give to Blair?!"

Tristan's smile stiffened, a flicker of a guilty conscience flashing across his eyes, but he quickly puffed out his chest self-righteously. "Oh, you mean those drafts. Blair is applying to the Royal College of Art this year, and she needs a solid portfolio piece. You can just enter next year; it's the same thing. Just consider the design on loan to her."

"On loan?" I laughed out of pure fury. "I stayed up for three months making this. Why the hell should she just get to take it?"

Blair hid behind him, her eyes instantly welling with tears as she tugged at his sleeve pitifully. "Tristan, forget it, I'll just give it back to her..."

"Don't be afraid!" Tristan turned and patted her comfortingly, then turned back to look at me with extreme arrogance.

"It's just some stupid design, isn't it? I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars to buy the naming rights. That should be enough, right? Blair's in poor health, she can't stay up late drawing. What's wrong with helping her out? Just draw another one. It's not that hard for you anyway."

I looked at him in total disbelief.

"Just draw another one? Tristan, do you even know what design is? Do you know what blood, sweat, and tears mean? That is my copyright, my right to attribution! Who gave you the right to sacrifice my future just to please her?"

"Because I've been feeding you for the past three years!" Tristan completely tore off his mask, pointing at me viciously. "You live in my apartment, eat my food, spend my money, and now I'm asking you to hand over a shitty design draft to help Blair out, so what? Don't push your luck!"

I let out a bitter, furious laugh.

"Feeding me? Over the past three years, which one of your final projects didn't I do for you? Which of your family's business proposals didn't I stay up all night revising? Even the rent for the apartment we live in—half of it comes from the part-time jobs I worked! Tristan, you absolutely disgust me."

"You—" Tristan choked, stung by the truth.

I didn't back down, lifting my chin defiantly. "Tomorrow, I'm going to let the whole academy know how you two scumbags colluded to plagiarize my work!"

Tristan's hand froze in mid-air, his face turning livid.

"Sienna, don't be like this," Blair peeked out from behind him, speaking in a sickeningly passive-aggressive tone. "So what if you report us? Do you have proof? All the original drafts are in Tristan's hands, and the IP address used for the upload was his. Who's going to believe you?"

She dangled a familiar silver flash drive in her hand. It was my backup drive.

I stared at the flash drive and said coldly, "Give it back to me."

Blair let out a shriek and immediately ducked behind Tristan, clutching the drive tightly. "Tristan, save me! She's going to hit me!"

"Give it back!" Not wanting to waste any more breath, I reached out to grab it.

"Sienna, you're crazy!" Tristan grabbed my shoulders and violently shoved me backward.

I lost my balance instantly, my abdomen slamming heavily into the sharp corner of the glass coffee table.

A tearing, sheer agony spread from my lower belly through my entire body, as if something was being forcefully ripped away from inside me. My face went deathly pale, and in absolute terror, I clutched my stomach as a warm liquid began to pool between my legs.

My baby!

"It hurts..." Covered in a cold sweat from the pain, I used every ounce of my strength to reach a trembling hand out to him. "Tristan... help me... I'm preg—"

Before I could even finish my sentence, Blair suddenly let out a weak gasp. Furrowing her brows, she clutched her chest and collapsed to the floor.

"Blair!"

The fleeting panic in Tristan's eyes was instantly replaced by overwhelming anxiety. Completely ignoring me as I curled up on the floor in agony, he scooped Blair up into his arms.

"Tristan... please..." I stared at his back in absolute despair.

Tristan stopped at the doorway, turning back to look at me with sheer disgust. "Sienna, drop this pathetic guilt trip. If anything happens to Blair, I swear I will never forgive you!"

Resting in his arms, Blair half-opened her eyes. Looking over his shoulder, she curled her lips into a secret, triumphant smirk.

The front door slammed shut, plunging the empty living room back into a dead silence.

Lying on the freezing floor, amidst the heart-shattering pain, I felt that tiny, unformed life being slowly stripped away from my body.

I stared blankly at the ceiling, my tears slipping down silently.

Tristan, you killed our baby with your own hands.