Chapter 1
In a meeting room, a client representative passed a contract to Madeleine Emerson and said, “Now that you’ve signed the contract, Ms. Emerson, everything’s in order. As per the terms, we will be helping you fake your death in 17 days.”
Madeleine took the contract and skimmed it before confirming with the representative, “Will the corpse look like me?”
“Rest assured, Ms. Emerson. The body will be picked out based on your exact measurements. No one will suspect a thing,” the representative confidently replied.
His promise put Madeleine’s mind at ease. She took her credit card out and readily settled the fee before leaving. Outside, she was greeted by the sight of a luxurious Lincoln limousine.
Jerry Ingram, her driver who had been waiting for her, quickly opened the door for her.
“Ms. Emerson,” Jerry greeted respectfully.
Madeleine nodded in response before getting into the back seat. After closing the door behind her, Jerry got back into the driver’s seat and drove off. The ride went without a hitch, and soon, the car pulled up outside a villa in Ivory Heights.
This was the house Madeleine bought specifically to live with Sullivan Carter.
Not long after she returned, the front entrance opened once more, and a man—Sullivan—came in.
Dressed in a white shirt and a black suit that fitted his broad-shouldered physique, he looked every bit the part of a handsome gentleman, save for his icy demeanor that kept everyone at arm’s length.
Sullivan slowly undid his cuffs before marching up to Madeleine. Scooping her up in his arms, he started carrying her toward the bedroom.
“No. Stop, Sullivan!” Unexpectedly, Madeleine immediately protested and struggled to get out of his arms.
Sullivan eyed her with his dark, cold eyes. He didn’t quite understand what kind of fuss she was making this time. “You’re asking me to stop? Didn’t you make having sex with you every day one of the conditions when you proposed this arrangement with me?”
Lowering her head, Madeleine mumbled out a lie, “Well, now… for the time being, you don’t need to. My period came early this month.”
Thankfully, Sullivan didn’t care. He simply responded curtly, “I’ll carry on with my work, then.”
He had indeed been rather busy lately. The business project he was working on had reached its most crucial stage.
Madeleine nodded in response, permitting Sullivan to leave.
She assumed he would be busy working all night. However, he soon received a call and came hurrying out of his study again.
When Sullivan spotted her in the living room, he came to an abrupt stop and said, “Since you don’t need my services tonight, I’m going out. I’ve got an important matter to attend to.”
After seeing the concern that clouded his usually aloof expression, Madeleine figured out the truth. His so-called important matter involved Isabel Koch. Nevertheless, she nodded without saying anything.
Having gotten her permission, Sullivan rushed past her and headed straight for the door. He was just about to leave when she called out, “Sullivan, from now on, you don’t need to…”
Sullivan had instinctively paused and frowned to listen to what Madeleine had to say, but when she saw the impatient look in his eyes, she trailed off.
In the end, instead of saying what she had meant to say, she simply told him, “Go ahead.”
Once he had disappeared into the darkness, she finally completed her sentence, muttering, “From now on, you don’t need to do this anymore. I’ll be leaving soon enough.”
Madeleine was a wealthy heiress. Having both money and good looks, she had done her fair share of ridiculous things—but the most outrageous of them all happened during her first year of college, when she paid Sullivan to become her boyfriend.
Sullivan was famous for being the campus heartthrob at Grant University. Countless women flocked in droves to write him love letters. His admirers could form a queue that would go on for miles.
Alas, he had a cold, reserved personality and had refused everyone. Instead, he kept himself busy with classes and his part-time job.
Madeleine had fallen in love with Sullivan at first sight and wanted nothing more than to make him hers. She found out that both his parents were deceased and that he grew up with his grandmother, Naomi Stewart, but she had fallen ill in recent years.
Thus, when she found out that he was working tirelessly just so he could afford to pay for Naomi’s treatment, she approached him to strike a deal with him.
She offered to pay for Naomi’s medical fees. In exchange, he would become her boyfriend. Every day, he would need to come over as scheduled and sleep with her as many times as stipulated in the agreement. This arrangement was to proceed until she grew tired of him.
At the time, Naomi’s condition had been rather dire, and Sullivan was in urgent need of money to save his only living relative. Therefore, he agreed to the arrangement, effectively making him Madeleine’s sugar baby.
Five years had passed since then. Both Madeleine and Sullivan had graduated from college and started working, but their relationship remained the same.
Naomi was still ill, and since Madeleine hadn’t grown tired of Sullivan yet, he was still living in the villa with her. His attitude toward her remained unchanged, too. He continued to be just as cold and indifferent as ever.
Up until recently, the status quo didn’t discourage Madeleine in any way. She believed that given enough time, she would be able to win his heart.
That all changed several days ago when she accidentally fell down the stairs and bumped her head. Only then did she realize she was in fact living in the world of a novel.
Sullivan was the male protagonist, and Isabel, his childhood friend, was the female protagonist. Meanwhile, Madeleine was merely the female antagonist.
Based on the novel, Sullivan’s project would become a major success in 17 days. This result would greatly elevate his standing in the business world, but it would only be the start. He would go on to become a true giant in the industry.
And the moment he achieved his success, the first thing he did was return Madeleine a significant sum of money before asking to terminate their relationship. However, she refused and continued to badger him relentlessly.
When she saw Sullivan and Isabel getting more intimate, she grew jealous and did many things to hurt or make life difficult for Isabel. Alas, that only drew Sullivan’s ire and detestation, and in the end, she died a tragic death.
Madeleine didn’t want to believe that such a ludicrous thing could be true, and she didn’t think she would be that stupid, either. Yet, everything that happened in the subsequent days matched the novel exactly.
After one too many times of seeing Sullivan leave her to go to Isabel’s side, she was forced to accept that the two protagonists were meant to be together.
Following an entire week’s worth of torment, Madeleine finally came to her senses.
She couldn’t risk her life like that. In order to escape from the clutches of the plot and change her outcome, she came to the decision that she couldn’t be involved with Sullivan anymore. She needed to fake her death and get away from this place—get away from Sullivan!
