Everyone I Loved Lied

In my sixth year as a body diver, I finally tracked down my son's body. My husband had just come back from the construction site. That was when he calmly told me the truth. "Asher never died. I was the detective who lied and told you I couldn't find him. "I was also the city's richest man—the one who refused to pay your ransom to save him. "I never went bankrupt, either. Every time I told you I was off hauling bricks at some construction site, I was really just back at the mansion, hiding from the smell of the dead on your skin." It hit me like a blow to the head. I stood there, numb. My brother, Rick Forrest, was the one who spoke next. "That best friend you've been pouring your heart out to online this whole time—that was me. I'm also the one who made you think you'd gotten the kidnappers angry and gotten your son killed. "That's not all. Our parents didn't die in that kidnapping, either. The truth is, they were the kidnappers." Cold flooded through me. Not until I saw my parents standing there, alive, did the pain finally tear a sound out of me. "Why—" My parents' brows furrowed, distant. "It's because you made such a scene! You knew Valerie's position as a false heiress was already humiliating enough, and you still let her get into that car accident that left her unable to have children. "You owe her this much. As long as you stop going after Valerie, we can still be a family." I stood frozen where I was. Right as the pain peaked, a long-unheard chime sounded in my mind—the System, back after all this time. [Host, do you wish to abandon this redemption mission and leave this world?] Chapter 1 "Yes." I clenched my fists until my nails bit into my palms. [Mission suspended. Forty-eight-hour countdown initiated.] Drew Carell reached over and smoothed my hair back, gentle as ever, though his voice stayed flat. "You've been punished for six years now. It's time you learned your lesson. "Valerie's already brought Asher back into the country. Behave yourself and stop trying to compete with her for attention." I slapped his hand away. "Why should I? She stole my son. She's the one who caused all of this!" Drew's brow creased. "Don't say things like that. Valerie only wanted a child to keep her company. You've spent years diving for corpses—you carry that kind of negative energy on you. You're not fit to raise a child. Valerie's thoughtful and generous, and she's raised Asher well. You should be grateful, Carrie, not bitter." Cold flooded through me all at once. Six years ago, I'd nearly died giving birth to my son, Asher Carell, and he was taken before I ever got to hold him. The kidnappers demanded an outrageous ransom and swore they'd kill him the moment the money didn't show. Of course, that was exactly when Drew's investments had collapsed, and he couldn't scrape together a cent of it. I drained every last bit of my savings hiring the best detective money could buy. But even a man with a spotless record couldn't find a trace of my son. With nowhere left to turn, I went to beg the wealthiest man in the city for help. I knelt outside his mansion gates until my knees split open and bled, and all I got back was a single word: no. That refusal set the kidnappers off. They killed my son. My parents, who'd gone to try to save him, were murdered too. After the tragedy, I became the most hated woman in Pisceno City—a curse everyone wanted dead, and my own brother hated me for it. Drew, grieving the loss of our son, sank deeper into despair with every passing year. I'd come into this world with one job: to redeem him and my brother. So for six years, I worked as a body diver. Asher's body was never found. My parents had been silenced and dumped in the ocean by the kidnappers, and their bodies never turned up either. I thought that if I could just find them, I could pull Drew and my brother back from the edge. I never imagined the whole thing was a lie. My chest ached until I could barely breathe, but I held back my tears. "The only reason I became a body diver is because of you. Isn't it?" "That was your punishment." My brother, Rick Forrest, didn't hold back his disapproval. "You used your position as the real heiress to walk all over Valerie for years. She suffered six years of misery because of you." "I was the one who got bullied, all this time!" I said, tears choking my voice. "You even asked my teachers and the school nurse back then. They confirmed it was Valerie who hurt me, who isolated me at school. Why won't any of you believe—" "Shut up!" Rick cut me off, sharp. "Even now, all you want to do is hurt people. You used the Forrest family's power to force them into lying. Hasn't Valerie suffered enough?" My parents were just as quick to blame me. "Valerie's been sweet and obedient since she was a child. Not like you, raised by traffickers—you've always been the one stirring up trouble. We owe you, yes. But that doesn't give you the right to keep going after Valerie." A sharp pain seized my chest. "It was Valerie's own mother who hired that trafficker. She's the one who ruined my life. Have you all really forgotten that?" My parents froze for a moment. Rick let out a cold laugh. "Mrs. Watson told us everything. You ran away from home because you couldn't stand being poor, and that's how you got taken. She showered you with love like you were her real daughter." Drew's face darkened. He grabbed my arm. "Carrie, why do you always assume the worst of people? Since you clearly haven't learned a thing, you need to spend more time reflecting." Chapter 2 Drew locked me in the basement. The moment the darkness swallowed me, it dragged up the old nightmare—being locked in a black little room by traffickers as a child. Phantom pain from a branding iron seared through my limbs, and I screamed. "Let me out! I don't want any of it anymore. I don't want anything!" Drew knew perfectly well how badly I feared the dark because of what happened to me as a child. There'd been a time when that knowledge softened him, when he swore he'd never let me face even a sliver of darkness again for the rest of my life. Now, he was using it to punish me. The panic clawing at my chest left me gasping for air. Without thinking, I pulled up the chat window I'd kept pinned at the top of my phone for years. The moment I saw the message history, my blood ran cold. That wasn't my best friend. It had been my brother the whole time, hiding behind a fake account. Every moment of it—my confusion when I first came home, the helplessness of being bullied, the despair after I lost my son—he'd talked me through all of it, offering comfort at every turn. Only now did I understand that none of those words had ever been meant to heal me. They'd been meant to condition me into giving Valerie whatever she wanted, no questions asked. I bit down until I tasted blood. Ten years. I wasn't going to keep playing the fool. The instant I unfriended his account, Rick showed up and dragged me out of the basement. "Why did you unfriend me?" He glared at me, his voice thick with anger. "I lied to you, but it was for your own good—to toughen you up." I could only laugh, bitter and cold. "For my own good? You had me diving for corpses for six years, searching for bodies that didn't even exist." My hands had gone raw and waterlogged. My legs had developed arthritis. Every inch of my body carried scars from reefs and rotting debris. Once, the current had dragged me under and damaged my lungs so badly I could never dive again. Rick only sneered when he heard it. "I arranged every single person who sent you out to dive. Did you really think I'd let you suffer for real? You just couldn't handle giving up your pampered lifestyle, and you're still whining about it." A wave of absurdity crashed over me. Of course. I should have known better than to expect anything from him. That was when Drew walked in with Valerie Watson. Six years apart hadn't changed her. She still had that same soft, delicate look. "Carrie, let the past stay in the past. We're all family here. There's no need to keep making a scene." Rick looked pleased and immediately turned to lecture me. "Valerie went through so much and never once complained. She's far more mature than you." The irony of it almost made me laugh. "So mature she stole my son?" Rick's expression stiffened. Drew's face filled with reproach. "Carrie, when are you going to stop this? Valerie's already let go of everything that happened. Do you have to make everyone miserable?" Valerie came toward me, her eyes red. "Carrie, I've wronged you. Don't blame Rick and Drew. If you're angry, take it out on me." She reached out toward me. The next second, she yelped and stumbled backward into Drew's arms. "Carrie, I only wanted your forgiveness—" She burst into tears, looking utterly wronged. Rick shoved me back. "Carrie, you've gone too far!" I stumbled from the force of it. Drew looked at me, disappointment written across his face. "If I'd known you'd stay this stubborn, I never should have let you come back." The last flicker of warmth in my heart went out. I didn't argue anymore. As I left the mansion, the System's chime sounded in my head. [Twenty-four hours remaining.] I was almost free. But the thought of my son, taken from me, still sent a dull ache through my chest. That was when my phone screen lit up. [Recovery site confirmed for the remains in the river channel outside the city. Come at once.] Chapter 3 It was the body-recovery job I'd already taken on—the one I'd once believed would lead me to Asher's remains. All of it had turned out to be a lie, but as a body diver, I had professional principles, so I went anyway. I'd barely stepped toward the boat when someone shoved me from behind with brutal force, straight into the river. The freezing water swallowed me whole, the stench of rot flooding my nose. I fought my way up, gasping. Through my blurred vision, I made out a small figure standing on the bank. The moment his face came into focus, a jolt of shock went through me. It was Asher. My son—the one I'd spent six years aching for. "Asher, help me—" "Stop yelling." There wasn't a trace of warmth on his young face. "I'm the one who hired you for this dive." His voice was flat with contempt. "You're bad luck. My mom got upset the second she came back, and it's your fault. I'm not letting you off easy." Despair sank into my bones along with the river water. I stared at his small face—so much like Drew's—and forced the words out, my voice shaking. "Valerie isn't your mother. I am." I told him the truth about where he came from, as hard as it was to say. Asher didn't so much as flinch. "I've known for a long time." He looked down at me like I was already dead, nothing but disdain in his eyes. "Uncle Rick told me ages ago. I just never wanted to admit it. My mom says your job is disgusting and shameful, and it's embarrassing for me. You upset her, so today I'm punishing you for it, on her behalf." Those few words shattered whatever was left of my hope. I'd been fooling myself this entire time. As the current dragged me under, I caught a hazy glimpse of Drew diving in and swimming toward me. When I woke again, he was sitting at my bedside, worry etched into his face. "Carrie, thank god you're all right." For a moment, I was disoriented enough to think we'd gone back to right after our wedding, back when he'd doted on me without reservation. Then the next second, I heard him say, "Asher just cares too much about Valerie. It made him act without thinking. Don't hold it against him. Let's stop fighting and just live our lives." The hospital room door swung open as he spoke, and Valerie walked in with Asher in tow. "Carrie, don't blame Asher. This is my fault. Let me apologize on his behalf." She started to kneel, but Drew caught her before she could. "It's not your fault." He shot me a displeased look. "Carrie, do you have to be so difficult about everything?" A bitter lump rose in my throat. I hadn't even said anything. As I struggled to sit up, Asher suddenly rushed forward and shoved me. "You evil woman! Why don't you just die!" The back of my hand, still hooked up to an IV, slammed into the edge of the bed, and pain drained the color from my face. Asher froze for a second. Before Drew could even scold him, he panicked and bolted. Valerie let out a worried gasp, and Drew rushed to comfort her. "I'll go check on him. He'll be fine." I watched the three of them like an outsider looking in on their family, a bitter ache spreading through my chest. The moment Drew left, Valerie's fragile act dropped away. "Carrie, you really are pathetic." I met her smug gaze head-on. "As long as I'm still here, you'll always be nothing but a thief who stole my family and my husband." "A thief?" Valerie looked like she'd just heard a joke. She pulled two folders from her tote and threw them in my face. "See for yourself who the real thief is." Two sets of paperwork. One was her marriage license with Drew. The other was the Forrest family's inheritance filing—and right there, still on the books, was the name that should have been struck from the records years ago: Valerie Forrest. Mine wasn't on it at all. My fingers trembled as I reached for a closer look, but Valerie snatched them back before I could. "You think changing my name means I'm not a Forrest?" She let out a mocking laugh. "Tonight's my welcome-home banquet. Dad and Mom already said you're expected to be there to apologize to me. "Think about Asher." With that, she turned and walked away. That was when the System chimed in my head: [Six hours remaining.] I forced down the hatred boiling in my chest. Since that was how it was going to be, I didn't need to hold back anymore. Chapter 4 By evening, when Valerie made her grand entrance at the banquet, the whole room erupted in praise. I slipped into a corner and quietly hit the button to cast the video onto the big screen. The instant the footage lit up, my blood ran cold. On screen, I was the one attacking her. Valerie was the one cowering and begging for mercy. There were several spliced-together clips too, deliberately faked to make it look like I'd gone insane, harassing her and trying to steal her child. In just a few seconds, I'd gone from victim to a vicious, unhinged lunatic. The room erupted in gasps, ridicule and whispers exploding all around me. I froze. Then I snapped my gaze to Drew. The moment I saw the indifference on his face, everything clicked. He'd swapped out my evidence beforehand. "You were willing to go to any length to target Valerie, so I'm going to make sure you understand what it means to reap what you sow. Carrie, I'm doing this to save you." Tears blurred my vision. "Drew, that footage wasn't fake—" Before I could finish, my mother walked over and slapped me across the face. "Haven't you caused enough trouble? I asked you here to apologize, and you use a video like that to terrorize Valerie instead?" My father glanced at Valerie's frightened face, then rounded on me, his voice like a whip. "We've punished you for six years, and you still refuse to change. How did we end up with a daughter like you?" "That's not what happened." My cheek burned. I tried to explain myself to my father, but he shoved me away, and I crashed into a champagne tower beside us. Glass shattered across the floor with a deafening crash. Shards tore into my skin, and blood mixed with spilled champagne, leaving me a bloody, disheveled mess. Every inch of me hurt. But none of it came close to the pain in my chest. I looked up at my parents, their faces twisted with fury, my voice shaking. "I'm your real daughter. Why won't either of you believe me?" They both froze for a moment. Valerie covered her face and let out a choked sob. "This is all my fault. I never should have come back. Carrie is only miserable because I'm alive. I might as well be dead." She made as if to jump toward the window, and Drew caught her instantly. "Valerie, don't scare me like that. I promise you, I'll never let anyone hurt you again." When he turned back to me, all the warmth had drained from his eyes. "Carrie. Come here and apologize." Rick hauled me roughly off the floor. "You've owed Valerie an apology for six years now. Get over there." The movement tore at my wounds, and the pain drained the color from my face. But Rick only had eyes for Valerie, who'd managed to squeeze out two tears. The gathered guests kept piling on, hurling accusations at me. "A woman that vicious never should have been brought back into the family." "Poor Valerie, forced to stay away all these years." "She wants to take everything that isn't hers—doesn't she know she doesn't deserve any of it!" Someone had already started livestreaming, the camera locked on my battered, bloody state. "Get on your knees and apologize to Valerie already. Admit what you did!" "Exactly. Bullying someone and acting like you're in the right. Unbelievable." The wave of condemnation crashed over me until I could barely breathe. I clenched my jaw. That was when Asher suddenly rushed forward and kicked me square in the knee. "Evil woman! Apologize, now!" The pain dropped me to the floor. Drew and Rick each grabbed one of my shoulders, pinning me down. "Carrie, this is your last chance. Apologize right now, or I really will be done with you." "You and Valerie are both my sisters. Stop this." My parents stood off to the side, their voices final and unyielding. "If you still refuse to apologize, we'll consider you no daughter of ours." I looked around at the people surrounding me—my closest family, every one of them full of hatred, every one of them determined to break me. In that moment, the last flicker of light inside me went out completely. When the System's countdown hit ten seconds, I tore free of their grip and ran to the window, a hollow, desolate smile tugging at my lips. "I won't apologize. And I don't want any of you, either." With that, I stepped off the ledge and fell, their faces going bloodless behind me.