Selling Myself

"I will be your mistress, Adrian. Just let my family live."

Adrian lifted his glass of wine. A faint smile curved his lips.

"I thought they would send me the adopted daughter," he said, "I didn't expect you."

"Everyone said your brother spoiled you like a princess. Turns out that was just a joke."

The tip of the pen paused, stabbing a small blot of ink onto the paper.

I signed my name, calm to the point of silence.

The contract would take effect in three days.

Then, I would cut all ties with the Willis name.

I traded myself for the survival of the Willis family

and my own permanent release.

Harper POV

The light cast a sliver of warm yellow across the door seam.

I stood in the deep shadow, fingers resting on the brass handle, hesitant to push.

The air inside the house had been suffocating since Father died.

"Joseph, I've settled it..."

I barely managed to push the front door open before my arm was wrenched away.

My body slammed against the leather sofa.

A dull pain shot through my back, knocking the air from my lungs.

When I opened my eyes, Joseph's face filled my vision.

"What did you talk about with Adrian?!" His jaw was rigid.

I rubbed my reddened wrist, my voice a sheath of ice.

"Do you honestly think there's another option?"

I wanted to tell him that the name on that contract was mine.

But looking at the desperate crimson in his eyes, I swallowed the words.

"Harper, Adrian is doing this purely to humiliate our family."

"And he can crush us effortlessly, can't he?"

Joseph buried his face in his hands, his voice raw and broken.

"No. I won't let Aria go..."

Aria, the daughter of my father's underboss, had been here only two months。

Already, she had eclipsed Joseph's affection for me.

He was my brother, the person I loved most in this world.

I didn't want him torn between us in the end, so I signed the contract, placing my name on the line.

Aria was sobbing, on the verge of hyperventilating.

"It's fine, Joseph. I have bad luck. No one has loved me since Father died."

Her voice cracked with manufactured despair.

"I'm just a fake Willis girl. I'm meant to be the one taking the fall for the true master."

I gave a cold laugh.

"Are you playing the victim? Your father—"

A heavy shove struck my shoulder.

"Shut up!"

My pupils contracted, and I was thrown backward, collapsing right into the nearly human-sized antique vase.

Joseph shouted, "Stop bullying Aria! Her father died for this family. You owe her—"

A deafening crash tore through the air mid-sentence.

The vase shattered into countless pieces.

I hit the ceramic fragments hard, the pain searing through every inch of my body in no time.

My breath trembled with every inhale.

Aria's father, Brad?

A life debt?

A bitter laugh stirred in my chest.

Brad had sent Joseph a