Heinrey pedaled hard through the winding countryside road, the fading twilight giving way to a ghostly blue darkness. Gravel crunched beneath the wheels, and tree shadows swayed across the dirt like claws reaching out from the past. His mind was a whirlwind — Ellie's tearful confession, the strange juice, the guilt, the promise. And now, a new weight pressed into his chest.
His mother.
She never came to the picnic.
He reached the farmhouse and noticed something was off. The porch light wasn’t on. The windows were dark.
“Mom?” he called out as he stepped inside.
The front room was a mess — pillows thrown, picture frames crooked, drawers pulled open. It wasn’t like this when he left.
In the corner of her bedroom, his mother sat on the floor, hugging her knees, her mascara smudged down her face like she had been crying for hours.
“Mom!” He rushed to her side. “What happened?”
She looked up, voice shaking. “Your father... he betrayed us.”
Heinrey blinked. “What do you mean?”
Nora gripped his arm. “Your father and my best friend — Sherry — they planned all this. Sending us here was just an excuse... to be together in the house I built with him.”
His stomach twisted. “Sherry Cooper? She’s the one who prepared the picnic basket.”
Nora nodded slowly. “I trusted her with everything. And she handed me back a lie.”
Heinrey’s thoughts raced. Ellie. The juice. That dizzy feeling. He suddenly couldn’t breathe. “She... she drugged me?”
He staggered to his feet, fury burning through him. The memory of Ellie flashed — her soft smile, her wide, honest eyes. Was it all fake?
Without another word, he stormed out.
---
The night was cold when he knocked — no, pounded — on the door of Ellie’s uncle’s house.
Ellie answered, wearing a cardigan over her sleep clothes, clearly startled. “Rey?”
His face was unreadable. His voice is low and bitter. “Do you know Sherry Cooper?”
She looked confused. “She visits sometimes… why?”
He gave a dry, joyless laugh. “Of course. I should’ve known. I was a fool.”
“Wait— What are you talking about?” Ellie stepped forward, concerned.
But Heinrey pulled a black card from his wallet and threw it at her feet — one of his no-limit family cards.
“For your part in the game,” he said coldly.
“Game?” she whispered.
But he was already turning around, storming off into the night without looking back.
---
Ellie couldn’t sleep.
The words Rey had thrown at her circled her mind like knives. So that’s how it is… I was a fool... your part in the game...
She sat up in bed, clutching the chain he’d once given her. What game? What did he mean?
Morning light crept through her window. She hadn’t changed clothes. She hadn’t cried — not yet. She was still too stunned.
At exactly 9:00 AM, she rushed to the farmhouse.
She knocked. No answer.
Again.
And again.
The old caretaker arrived a few minutes later, walking with a tired limp.
“Excuse me, sir — the people staying here... the boy and his mother, where are they?”
He looked at her with tired sympathy. “They left early. In a real rush. Bags packed, car gone before sunrise. Said something about needing to be back in Melbourne.”
Ellie’s breath caught. She tried to speak but nothing came out. She stood frozen on the porch, watching the dust settle from a departure she hadn’t known was happening.
Back at home, she collapsed onto her bed.
She held the chain in her hand and looked at the black card he had thrown — something she barely understood.
Was she just a piece in someone else’s story?
“I trusted him…” she whispered. “And he left.”
Tears finally came.
And with them, a silent vow: I will never let someone make a fool of me again.
---
Back in Melbourne, the Smith mansion stood like a monument to perfection — but inside, it was anything but.
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