Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Warm light spilled from the crystal chandelier, illuminating the cream-covered birthday cake topped with fresh strawberries.
Nora had one of my fingers clasped in both hands, her little face bright with anticipation. At three years old, she wore a pink princess dress, the lace along its hem swaying gently whenever she moved.
“Mommy, blow out the candles!” she urged in her soft, childish voice. Her round eyes sparkled like stars.
I smiled and nodded. I was just bending down to blow out the three dancing flames with her when the household servant suddenly switched the television to the news.
A clarification statement from the Sterling family’s public-relations department filled the screen.
Ethan Sterling stood tall at a press conference in a tailored charcoal suit. His posture was immaculate, and his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses were cold enough to freeze the room. He gave a slight nod, then spoke into the microphone in a voice so clear and final that it echoed through the entire living room, extinguishing the warmth in an instant.
“In response to the false rumors circulating online, I am issuing the following clarification.”
“First, I have never been secretly married. I have always been single. That is a fact well known throughout our social circle.”
“Second, the so-called rumor that I secretly married and fathered a daughter is completely fabricated. I have no children.”
He lifted a hand and adjusted his glasses. Under the lights, his long fingers looked almost bloodless. A frightening malice churned in his eyes, as if he were staring straight through the camera and at me.
“I advise certain individuals with ulterior motives to stop spreading rumors and attempting to use me for publicity. Otherwise, I will pursue legal action. Do not bring humiliation upon yourselves.”
The broadcast froze on his cold profile.
Nora suddenly went rigid in my arms. The tiny fork she had been holding stopped in midair. She blinked, confusion clouding her clear eyes. Then she turned to me, and fat tears rolled down her cheeks without warning.
“Mommy, that’s Daddy… Why did he say he doesn’t have a daughter? Aren’t I Daddy’s little girl?”
It felt as though an invisible hand had closed around my heart and squeezed until I could barely breathe. A metallic taste rose in my throat.
I pulled Nora tightly against me, feeling her small body tremble in my arms. Against my will, my mind flashed back to the night before Ethan had left on his business trip.
Chapter 2
Ignoring my pleas that I needed to prepare for Nora’s birthday the next day, he had used the Limited-Edition Charcoal Anniversary Tie I had chosen myself to bind my wrists to the bedpost. His movements had carried an unmistakable, unyielding possessiveness. His gaze had burned so hotly it felt capable of setting me on fire.
He had taken me again and again, stopping only after I cried out and bit hard into the side of his neck, leaving a clear mark behind.
The charcoal tie, patterned with a subtle design, had been a limited-edition piece I found only after searching every major department store in the city. At the time, Ethan had merely glanced at it.
Yet he wore it every day.
I had once been naive enough to believe that was his way of accepting my feelings—that it was the only tender proof of what we shared in a relationship that had never been given a name.
This was the fourth year Ethan and I had been “together.”
We had no marriage certificate. All we had was a Cohabitation Agreement locked in a safe, a document with no legal force. Still, we had raised Nora together, our beautiful little girl.
Inside the Sterling Family Villa, the servants respectfully called me Mrs. Bennett. But the moment I stepped outside those doors, I was nothing more than Ethan Sterling’s hidden secret—the punchline of every conversation in the Elite Socialite Circle.
And my daughter did not even have the right to be publicly acknowledged by her own father.
With trembling fingers, I pressed the button to turn off the television.
Silence fell over the living room. Only Nora’s muffled sobs lingered in the air.
Holding her close, I rose and began walking toward the nursery on the second floor. The wall sconces stretched our shadows across the hallway, drawing them out until they looked like two lines that could never meet.
Even after I finally coaxed Nora to sleep, her small fist remained tangled in the corner of my blouse. A faint crease lingered between her brows as she murmured in her dreams.
“Daddy… present…”
I sat beside her bed and stared at the only family photograph we had, standing in its frame on the nightstand.
It had been taken on Nora’s first birthday. Arthur Sterling had practically forced Ethan to sit down for it. Ethan’s expression was distant and detached, as though he were attending an insignificant business meeting rather than his daughter’s birthday.
I held one-year-old Nora in my arms, my smile shy but filled with hope. Without realizing it, I had leaned toward Ethan. He, however, had left a clear space between us. Not even the edge of his clothes touched mine.
That distance had been there from the beginning.
I simply hadn’t understood that it was a warning of how we would end.
Carefully freeing my blouse from Nora’s fingers, I picked up the frame and carried it into the bathroom. I removed the photograph, took out a pair of scissors, and set the blades against the glossy paper.
Snip.
The cut was clean and decisive. I didn’t hesitate.
Chapter 3
The photograph fell into two pieces.
I tossed Ethan’s half into the trash. Tiny scraps from the cut edge landed near the sink and were caught by a trickle of water, spiraling down the drain like the shattered remains of the hope I had clung to for four years.
I dried the half with Nora and me using a tissue, taking care not to damage it, then slipped it safely into my handbag.
Four years.
For four years, I had believed that if I was gentle enough, patient enough, obedient enough, I might eventually melt the ice around Ethan Sterling’s heart.
I remembered the night he fell ill. I had stayed beside his bed until morning, checking his temperature every hour and making batch after batch of hot ginger tea.
I remembered all the nights he worked late. I always left a light on and kept dinner warm, waiting for him to come home even if he ate only a single bite.
I remembered the first time Nora said “Daddy.” Thrilled, I had recorded it and sent the video to him.
His entire response had been one cold word.
“Okay.”
Again and again, I had invented excuses for his indifference. I told myself he was simply reserved. That he didn’t know how to express affection. That somewhere beneath his silence, he cared.
But when he denied Nora’s existence before the entire world, I finally woke up.
Some hearts were stone from the beginning. No amount of warmth could change them.
And some people never cared for you at all.
Back in the bedroom, I opened the message I had received six days earlier. My phone lit up, revealing a photograph of a medical document confirming that Adrian Ashford had undergone a sterilization procedure.
Beneath it was his message.
“Clara, I know how much you’ve suffered in the Sterling family. Say the word, and I’ll come home immediately to take you and Nora away. Nora will be my only child. I’ll spend the rest of my life loving and protecting her. I’ll give her an openly acknowledged place in my family, and I’ll never let anyone hurt her again.”
Adrian Ashford.
The boy I had called my big brother for more than ten years, though we shared no blood.
The one who had secretly sent me money for living expenses after my family lost everything and my father died.
The one who had always rushed to protect me whenever the cruel kids at school cornered me.
Four years ago, his family had sent him abroad to continue his education. Before he left, Margaret Ashford came to see me. She wore an impeccably tailored designer suit, and although her words were polite, the superiority beneath them was unmistakable.
“Clara, you and Adrian come from different worlds. Our family has already chosen a fiancée whose background is suitable for him. You should stop pursuing him before you damage his future.”