Her Dog Killed My Mother, I Took Everything

After her mother was bitten by a dog, Lina called her fiancé, Gabriel, only to discover that the dog belonged to his mistress, Bella—and that he was skiing in Montana with her. When Lina told him that her mother might lose her leg, his response was, “Bella is really upset right now. Can’t you comfort her?” Four hours later, the hospital called to tell Lina that her mother had gone into cardiac arrest and could not be revived. At the exact same time, Bella posted a photo from a ski lift on social media. In it, Gabriel was kissing her temple. Lina didn’t cry. She wiped away her tears and dialed a number she hadn’t called in fifteen years. The contact was saved under just two words: Dad. What she didn’t know was that Vincent Carver was the one man in the city no one dared to cross. Neither her fiancé nor the Moro family had ever known her real surname. She packed her bags, flushed the five-carat engagement ring down the toilet, cut up every photo of herself and Gabriel, and blocked everyone in the Moro family. Only seven people attended her mother’s funeral. Gabriel was not one of them. Then Lina discovered something shocking on the veterinary records: Bella’s Doberman had already attacked three people before. Gabriel had signed the records as both the emergency contact and a witness. Lina tracked down the third victim—a six-year-old child who had needed twenty-two stitches and had been forced to sign a confidentiality agreement. The Moro family had been covering it all up. The last time Lina saw Gabriel was at a charity gala. He stood on the terrace with his arm around Bella. On Bella’s finger was a yellow diamond ring. He had proposed to her—on the very day of Lina’s mother’s funeral. In front of everyone, Lina exposed the truth and said, “You don’t even know my real name.” Then she walked away. That night, Gabriel smashed through her window and stumbled into her home, drunk. He kissed her while calling out Bella’s name. Before dawn, Lina got into the car her father had sent for her and left the city behind. Two months later, she was appointed Vice President of Carver Holdings. When Gabriel saw her photo in the news, he chased her to New York. He sneaked into a charity gala and grabbed her arm. Lina simply looked at him and said, “I’m sorry. Do we know each other?” Security dragged him out. She filed for a restraining order, reclaimed her birth name—Elena Carver—and erased Gabriel from her life completely. Then Marcus Turner, Mrs. Turner’s son, entered her life. He was quiet, gentle, and never expected anything in return. When Elena told him she wasn’t ready for a relationship, he simply said, “Then let’s take it one step at a time. I can wait as long as it takes.” A year later, they got engaged on a rooftop in New York. Elena wore the sapphire ring that had belonged to Marcus’s grandmother, sunlight glowing softly across her face. Meanwhile, Gabriel called off his engagement to Bella. His family cut him off financially, and he was fined for violating the restraining order. He spent every night unable to sleep, filling his phone’s notes with letters he would never send. In the end, he stood alone by his apartment window, staring at the lights of the same city, finally realizing that Elena no longer belonged to him. And Elena no longer needed to remember him. She had become her own sun—no longer revolving around anyone else’s orbit.