Chapter 2

The room was arranged exactly as Elias had kept it – refined, elegant, filled with a scholarly aura.

Just like him, seemingly flawless on the surface.

I walked to the desk, where an open copy of *Faust* lay.

Tucked between the pages was a photograph. It was me.

Sixteen years old, in my school uniform, pigtails, a brilliant smile.

It was the first time I'd seen Elias. He was the keynote speaker at a school alumni event.

Back then, he was every girl’s Prince Charming, gentle, charming, and perfectly composed.

I was one of them.

I'd had a secret crush on him, for a very long time.

Until that day he ripped off all his pretenses.

"Do you like it here?"

Caleb's voice suddenly startled me from the doorway.

I quickly closed the book, hiding the photograph.

He walked up to me, picking up *Faust*.

"My brother loved this book." He traced the cover. "He used to say, a person can make a deal with the devil for their desires."

His finger paused at the corner of the book, as if about to open it.

"Lena, what would *you* sell for your desires?"

I looked at him, not understanding his words.

"Do you know how my brother died?" he asked again.

My hand trembled.

"A car accident," he said. "Drunk driving. He left your engagement party, completely wasted, and then crashed into a bridge abutment. Tell me, why would he go to your engagement party? And why would he drink so much?"

I stayed silent.

"The [Lena's Last Name] family told everyone my brother was deeply in love with your sister, heartbroken, so he drank his sorrows away," Caleb's voice was soft, yet it carried an icy chill. "But I know that's not it."

He leaned in, his mouth close to my ear.

His breath on my earlobe sent a shiver down my spine.

"My brother's death... was because of you."

He suddenly reached out and pulled the photograph from the book.

I gasped, startled.

He looked at the picture of my younger self, then at me, his eyes growing dark and unreadable.

"Why was your picture in my brother's book?"

"I don't know," I lowered my gaze.

"You don't know?" He held the corner of the photo, bringing it closer to my face.

"But my brother's diary... it was all about you," Caleb's voice was a low murmur, each word like a chip of ice landing on my heart. "He said he’d found his muse, his salvation."

My body began to grow cold.

Caleb's voice held a hint of cruelty. "The day before your engagement, he came to find you, didn't he?"

My lips moved, but no sound came out.

"He confessed his feelings to you, but you rejected him," Caleb pressed on. "That's why he got drunk at your engagement party, that's why he died on the way home. Lena, my brother's death? You're the real culprit!"

"It wasn't me!" I finally managed, my voice shaking in a way I hadn't realized.

"It wasn't you?" He flung the photo at my face. The edge of the paper grazed my cheek, leaving a faint sting. "Then tell me, why did they find *this* at the scene of my brother's accident?"

He pulled an evidence bag from his pocket.

Inside was an earring.

The one I wore on my engagement day. Unique in the world, my own design.

I'd lost it in the chaos of that "accident."