"My grandfather never allowed my father to marry an adopted daughter with no noble background. His opposition only grew stronger when he discovered my aunt’s true nature—what kind of person she really was—and realized that all she coveted was the family’s wealth and fortune."
"In the end, my father married my mother. Even though she knew everything, she couldn’t escape the arranged marriage that had been forged for the sake of family interests and cooperation between the two households. After the wedding, my father continued loving my aunt, showering her with affection and lavish gifts. As for my mother... once she became pregnant with my twin brother and me, he lost all interest in her. He neglected her so thoroughly that she became the family’s laughingstock."
Adrian Voss smiled mockingly.
"If things had ended there, it wouldn’t have been so bad. The truth is, my mother, my brother, and I lived quite well for several years without that piece of trash who didn’t deserve to be called a father."
"But my aunt wanted more than that. She hated my mother, envied her, and wanted her dead."
"That woman wanted everything my mother had. She wanted to kill her... and she wanted to kill us along with her."
"The irony is that my uncle was having an affair with that same aunt. My idiot father had no idea he was wearing the biggest pair of horns imaginable. He even raised his niece for fifteen years, believing she was his own daughter. He was willing to sacrifice his real children for that woman and her daughter."
"My uncle made the first move. It was a summer night, and a fire quietly spread through the grand villa. My mother had already discovered the gasoline and noticed that the windows and doors had been locked."
"I noticed it too."
Adrian Voss let out a soft laugh devoid of warmth as he gently brushed the trembling eyes of the girl before him.
"My father was filled with hatred for us. He sealed off every possible escape route. While my mother shielded my twin brother and me with her own body, my brother—the smartest and calmest among us—ran straight to my father’s room."
"My father’s room was the easiest place to escape from. The three of us were trapped high above the ground, and escape was nearly impossible. They wanted all three of us dead. They wanted our lives to end so they could live happily ever after. As for us... we were meant to burn together in hell."
His tone remained calm and unhurried. His broken eyes were filled with indifference, and his voice was as low and steady as ever, as though he were telling someone else’s story.
"But my brother was smart and strong. He endured the searing pain and choking smoke. He tied bedsheets together into a rope and lowered it from the sixth floor into the garden below. He sent our mother down first, then told me to go next. He said he’d follow after me. But..."
"The house exploded before I could make it all the way down. I fell, dragging my broken leg behind me as I crawled away from the old mansion that was being devoured by flames."
"My mother survived. And I survived. But my brother..."
Adrian Voss’s voice grew heavy, filled with burning hatred and despair.
"My uncle seized all of the Voss family’s businesses. My mother and I fled overseas to seek refuge with her family and ask my grandfather for protection."
"As for my father, he was nearly burned to death in another incident years later. He had been betrayed by both his lover and his brother. When he finally learned the truth, he lost his mind. He no longer loved my aunt, and he lost everything—his fortune, his lover, the daughter he thought was his. Nothing remained."
"He wanted to kill my uncle. And he did. One night, he took a dagger and stabbed him until every last drop of blood drained from his body."
"Everyone knows what happened after that."
Adrian Voss sighed dramatically.
"That child returned from overseas to seek revenge, reclaimed the family business from the shameless mistress, and threw her and her daughter out of the old mansion after it had been painstakingly rebuilt."
"As for my father, he was put on trial for murdering my uncle. Afterward, I had him committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he endured endless torment. He eventually died while being transferred to another facility."
He smiled faintly.
"What a perfect revenge story."
Vivienne Blackwood’s face remained expressionless. Not a single word escaped her lips.
None of these events had ever been mentioned in the novel.
All she knew was Adrian Voss—the genius male protagonist who had suffered in childhood, risen to success, and eventually lived a happy life.
She knew nothing about the past that had only been briefly hinted at.
Silence filled the room.
Adrian Voss tilted his head slightly and laughed again, his eyes brimming with twisted melancholy.
"Actually... I just lied to you."
"That’s merely the version the family tells. The version that was fed to the media."
What?
Vivienne Blackwood’s expression remained blank, though a faint tremor passed through her lashes, betraying her confusion.
Adrian stared at her. His gray-blue eyes were filled with sorrow, as though they had been swallowed by an endless abyss. Then, in an instant, all emotion vanished, leaving behind something dark and dangerous.
"The truth is, my revenge began the moment I left the country."
"I was the one who nearly burned the so-called Mr. Voss—my father—to death. I was the one who fabricated all the evidence and pointed it toward my aunt."
"I did far worse things than that."
Adrian Voss studied Vivienne Blackwood carefully, searching for even the slightest trace of fear or disgust.
He found only shock in those clear eyes.
"I staged the entire scene of my father killing my uncle. That cowardly, weak man would never have had the courage to kill someone with his own hands—not after what he did to my mother, my brother, and me."
"So I helped him."
"I placed the dagger in his hand and made him kill his brother. Then I stabbed the corpse several more times myself. After that, I gave my father a massive dose of sedatives to make him appear insane. Once he was locked away in a psychiatric hospital, I secretly returned every few months to torment him."
"In the end, I got bored."
"So I simply took him out of the asylum and arranged his car accident that very night."
"And my little so-called sister?"
A cruel smile appeared on his lips.
"I sold her to human traffickers. She ended up as a sex slave. I even sent my aunt photographs of her as a Christmas gift."