Blurb：
When **dissociative amnesia** erases **Arden Stratford**'s painful past at **Briarwood Manor**, the disgraced heiress discovers her family’s cruelest secret: a lifetime of lockets from brother **Gareth Stratford** masking systemic betrayal. Six years after **Briar Langley** manipulates **Holden Whitaker** into abandoning his star-crossed promise at **The Stargazer’s Observatory**, Arden’s shattered memory exposes **Briarwood**'s rot. Now **Augustus Hawke**, the enigmatic billionaire who intercepted her suicide plunge from **Empyrean Bridge**, offers a dangerous bargain – confront **Gareth**’s lies, expose **Briar**'s "fragile" charade, and reclaim **Stratford** legacy using **Veridia City**'s most ruthless tactics. But as Arden uncovers **Whitaker** family corruption and **Briar**'s hidden pregnancy schemes, the *silver lockets* binding her childhood to **Gareth**’s betrayal reveal a darker truth: **Briarwood Manor**’s glittering facade was always meant to drown her.
Content：
§01The cold was the first thing she remembered.
A bone-deep, suffocating cold that seeped into her lungs and turned her limbs to lead.
Water.
Everywhere.
Arden Stratford fought against the crushing weight, her limbs flailing in a desperate, clumsy ballet.
Her silk gown, a birthday present from her father, now clung to her like a shroud, dragging her down into the murky depths of the lake at Briarwood Manor.
Through the distorted veil of water, she saw a figure slicing through the dark toward her.
Gareth.
Her brother.
Her protector.
Relief, sharp and sweet, pierced through the fog of her panic.
*Brother, save me,* she tried to scream, but only a torrent of bitter water flooded her mouth.
He was so close.
His hand was reaching for hers.
Then, a voice from the shore, shrill and sharp as shattering glass, cut through the chaos.
“Gareth! Get Briar first! She’s fragile!”
It was their mother.
Arden watched, suspended in the icy water, as Gareth’s eyes met hers.
She saw a flicker of guilt, of apology, before he pulled his hand back.
He turned.
He swam away from her, toward the other flailing figure in the darkness.
Toward Briar Langley.
The girl who had taken everything.
Despair, colder and more final than the lake itself, filled the space where hope had been.
The world dissolved into a swirl of blackness.
§02
Six years ago, that lake had been her sanctuary.
On her seventeenth birthday, before Briar had ever set foot in their lives, Arden had stood on its shore, feeling like the universe belonged to her.
“Happy birthday, princess,” Gareth had said, slipping a custom-made locket around her neck.
It was a family tradition.
Every year, a new locket, each one a tiny silver promise of his protection.
That night, she’d met Holden Whitaker, her childhood sweetheart, at The Stargazer’s Observatory, the glass-domed marvel her father had built for her at the edge of the woods.
“One day, Ardie,” Holden had whispered, his breath warm against her ear as they looked through the telescope.
“I’ll replace that locket with a ring.”
He’d sealed the promise with a clumsy, sweet kiss under a canopy of constellations.
Her world had been a perfect, glittering snow globe of love and privilege.
A week later, her mother had shattered it.
She’d introduced them to Briar Langley, the daughter of her deceased college friend.
“Arden, darling,” her mother had said, her hand resting on Briar’s trembling shoulder.
“Briar has been through so much.
You’ll have to be the bigger person here.
Just let her have her way for a little while.”
“A little while” became an eternity.
§03
Briar was an artist of fragility.
Her eyes were perpetually dewy, her voice a fragile whisper.
The first day, Arden made her cry simply by saying the word “Mom.”
A wave of accusations followed.
Arden was insensitive, cruel.
The next week, Briar “accidentally” broke a porcelain music box, a gift to Arden from her late grandmother.
When Arden cried out in anguish, Briar’s own tears flowed faster.
“I’m so sorry, sister! I’m just so clumsy! Please don’t hate me!”
The result was Arden being reprimanded for her “materialism” and for upsetting their “grieving guest.”
The first month, Briar nearly drowned.
Arden had refused to take her to the observatory, her one private sanctuary.
“It’s my special place,” she’d argued, a childish possessiveness she couldn’t shake.
“Fine, sister,” Briar had whispered, tears already welling.
“I won’t go.
I don’t want to be a bother.”
Her mother’s voice had been cold steel.
“Arden, is this how I raised you?”
Reluctantly, she had led Briar toward the gardens.
Near the lake, Briar had stumbled, grabbing onto Arden’s arm and pulling them both into the icy water.
§04
The story Briar told after being rescued first was a masterpiece of victimhood.
Arden had pushed her.
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The End