The Jakarta sun blazed at its most merciless as Sienna Anindita stepped through the gates of her friend's house. A lingering smile still played on her lips — she'd just visited a newborn, tiny and impossibly perfect, and a flicker of warmth had settled into her chest. A simple wish: to have a small happiness like that someday, far from the cold walls of the Holland household.

A black luxury sedan pulled up directly in front of her. The window slid down, revealing a face she knew well — a man in an impeccable suit.

"Uncle Mahesa?" Sienna blinked in surprise.

Mahesa, thirty-seven, owner of a prestigious hotel chain, gave her that warm smile of his. His mature face and calm demeanor had always made Sienna feel safe. He was the only adult who'd ever treated her like a human being while her stepfather Holland and her grandmother treated her like damaged furniture.

"Sienna! What a coincidence — I just came from a meeting nearby," Mahesa said gently. "Hop in, I'll drive you home. A pretty girl like you shouldn't be waiting for a cab out here in this heat."

Sienna hesitated, but her trust in Mahesa outweighed her caution. "You sure it's not too much trouble?"

"Not at all. Come on."

She climbed into the cool interior. The scent of expensive cologne filled the car, but beneath it was something else — sweet yet sharp, faintly unfamiliar.

"How's school? Your stepfather isn't still trying to marry you off to that old business partner of his, is he?" Mahesa asked, easing the car into traffic.

Sienna let out a heavy sigh. "Same as ever. Grandma's been piling on the pressure too. Sometimes I just want to run."

Mahesa chuckled softly. His wrist, sheathed in an expensive watch, reached over to pat her shoulder. "Hang in there. You know I'm always on your side. Anything happens, you know who to call."

"Thank you, Uncle. You're really the best."

Sienna leaned her head against the seat. For some reason, an overwhelming drowsiness crashed over her out of nowhere. Her eyelids turned to lead, and that sweet scent in the car now felt suffocating.

"Uncle... the smell is kind of strange..." she murmured weakly.

"It's just a new air freshener, Sienna. Take a little nap — I'll wake you when we get there." Mahesa's voice sounded far away, impossibly far, before darkness swallowed her whole.

Her skull felt like it had been split open with a hammer when she started to come to. Her vision swam. A white ceiling with a glittering crystal chandelier was the first thing she saw. She wasn't in the car. She was in an enormous hotel room.

Sienna tried to sit up, but her body felt boneless, like jelly. Her bag lay discarded on the floor, and the balcony doors were sealed shut.

Click.

The bathroom door opening sent her heart plummeting. She heard footsteps, then a baritone voice she recognized all too well, speaking on the phone. Sienna froze. She squeezed her eyes shut and played dead.

"Relax, Holland. Your merchandise is safe with me at the Grand Deluxe," the voice said. It was Mahesa. But the warmth was gone from his tone. What remained was something greedy. Something cold.

"..."

"Of course — wire the rest tomorrow morning after we make it official. But remember our deal: before she's legally 'mine' tomorrow, I want to take her for a test drive tonight. Consider it a bonus for covering all your gambling debts."

"..."

Mahesa laughed. The sound made Sienna's skin crawl. "Sienna's a beauty, Lan. Way too good to just let sit there. She thinks I'm some noble uncle looking out for her. Poor little thing has no idea she's the payment."

Sienna's world collapsed in that instant. Tears nearly spilled, but she fought them back with everything she had. Nausea surged through her chest. The man she'd considered her protector, the man she'd respectfully called Uncle all these years, was nothing but a predator who'd just bought her from her own stepfather.

Mahesa hung up. His footsteps drew closer to the bed where Sienna lay.

"Wake up, sweetheart... Uncle knows you're already awake," he whispered right beside her ear.

Sienna's eyes flew open. The fear was gone. In its place: pure, blazing fury. She shot upright, jerking away from his hand before it could touch her cheek.

Mahesa flinched, then that disgusting smirk spread across his face. "Ah, already up? Faster than I expected. The drug doesn't last long on that little body of yours, does it?"

"You piece of shit, Mahesa!" Sienna's voice came out low and razor-edged. "You and Holland actually did this to me? You think I'm something you can buy and sell?"

Mahesa laughed openly, loosening his tie as though he'd already won. "Sienna, Sienna... the world runs on transactions. Your stepfather needed cash to plug his gambling holes, and I needed a pretty new plaything. You should be grateful — better me than one of Holland's geriatric business cronies, right? I'm rich, I'm still in my prime, and I can set you up for life."

"Set me up for life?" The nineteen-year-old spat on the floor. "You're just a pathetic old man so lonely he has to buy girls because no sane woman would touch a monster like you!"

Mahesa's face turned scarlet. She'd hit the nerve. "Watch your mouth, you little slut! I paid top dollar for you. Tonight, you're going to learn how to service your master!"

He lunged forward, grabbing for her shoulders to slam her back onto the bed. He expected a weak girl who'd dissolve into sobs.

He was dead wrong.

The instant Mahesa's hand shot out, Sienna caught his wrist with lightning speed. With textbook aikido technique, she wrenched his arm until something in the joint cracked.

"AGHH! What the hell are you doing?!" Mahesa howled, his body folding involuntarily with the twist.

"You think I stayed quiet all these years because I was weak?" Sienna whispered directly into his ear, her voice arctic. "I trained in martial arts for years for exactly this. For the day some piece of garbage like you tried to put his hands on me."

"You—"

Mahesa swung wild with his free hand, a sloppy haymaker aimed at her face. Sienna slipped it cleanly, then drove two rapid punches into his solar plexus. He choked on his own air.

"That's for every ounce of trust you betrayed!"

Sienna grabbed the collar of his shirt and drove her knee upward with full force, directly into Mahesa's most prized possession.

CRACK!

"ARRRRGHHHH!"

Mahesa shrieked at a pitch no grown man should be capable of producing. He crumpled to his knees, face turning blue, both hands clutching between his legs as violent tremors racked his body. He couldn't even scream anymore — just pathetic, strangled whimpers.

Sienna stood tall, straightening her slightly disheveled clothes. She grabbed her bag and stared down at Mahesa, writhing on the hotel carpet, with undisguised contempt.

"One thing you should know, Mahesa. This deal is off. And you can tell Holland that starting this second, he no longer has a stepdaughter."

She strode to the door. Before stepping out, she glanced back one last time. "Oh, and don't even think about coming after me — not if you want those reproductive organs of yours to keep working. Because next time, I won't just kick them. I'll destroy them."

Sienna walked out of that hotel room with her head high and her pulse roaring. She knew Holland and Mahesa wouldn't let this go. She had to disappear. She had to find a way to make sure no man could ever claim her as property again.

And that was when a wild idea struck her, right as she passed a billboard for an international fertility clinic on the way home.

IVF.

If she got pregnant, no man would want to buy her as a mistress or a political pawn for his family. She'd have her own world.

Another car pulled up beside her — but this one wasn't Mahesa. It was someone whose face made Sienna's eyes flood with tears she'd been holding back, because it had been so long.

"Sienna, what bar fight did you just walk out of? Your hair looks like you got struck by lightning." He stared, bewildered, at the girl who was usually the picture of poise.

"Harris, I need you to send me to Mexico."

"Mexico? Out of nowhere? Are you drunk?"

"I'm not drunk. I want to get pregnant. Right now."

"P-PREGNANT?! You're not even married and you want to get pregnant?"

"What the hell has gotten into you?"

That night, Sienna curled up on Harris's couch. She refused to sleep in the bedroom — she felt safer near the exit. The Holland household was dead to her. She'd sooner die than go back just to be dragged to an altar or into another old man's bed.

Her mother? Sienna exhaled painfully. Her mother was a good woman, but far too weak under Holland's thumb. And then there was Aluna, her stepsister, who was probably laughing herself sick right now knowing Sienna had vanished.

"Sleep, Si. You're safe here. I'm not letting Holland through that door," Harris said from the bedroom doorway, his voice steady and sincere.

Sienna managed a small nod, though her mind kept spinning, assembling the insane plan she'd blurted out in the car.

The next morning, the sun had barely cleared the horizon when Harris woke up. He planned to make breakfast and have a serious talk — an attempt to convince Sienna that "getting pregnant immediately" was weapons-grade crazy.

But the living room was empty. The blanket was folded neatly, and his sister was gone. Harris rushed to check his wallet on the kitchen table. Cleaned out. All that remained was a scrap of paper covered in Sienna's hasty handwriting:

"Harris, I'm sorry. I borrowed your money and your passport. I have to get far away before they find me. I'm not stealing from you" I'm borrowing. Once the baby's born and I have a new life, I'll pay back every cent.

"Don't look for me. I need this freedom."

Sienna.

Harris raked his fingers through his hair in frustration, but a second later he sank back down and let out a long breath.

"Crazy kid... but at least she still thinks of me as her brother if she's willing to borrow my money."

The atmosphere inside the Elson mansion was suffocating. Condolence wreaths blanketed the grounds, but the master of the house, Kalendra Elson, stood like a statue carved from ice. His wife was gone — cancer had taken her.

Kalendra stood on the balcony, staring at nothing. The hope of producing an heir through the IVF procedure they'd spent months planning was now buried alongside his wife's coffin.

"Marco," Kalendra called without turning to face his personal aide. His voice was winter itself.

"Yes, sir?"

"Go to the hospital sperm bank. Order them to destroy my sample immediately. My wife is gone, so there's no reason for my seed to be planted in any other woman's body. I don't want an heir if it's not from her."

"But sir, that's the last sample—"

"Just do it!" Kalendra's low snarl shook the room.

Marco bowed deeply and left at once. Kalendra wanted every last trace of hope erased so he could devote himself fully to becoming an even more ruthless monster at the helm of Black Lotus.

But downstairs, an old man with a lion-headed cane had heard every word. Elson Senior — Kalendra's father — carved deep lines into his brow.

"Has he lost his mind? He wants to end the Elson bloodline over one woman?" the patriarch fumed.

He immediately signaled to a trusted man hidden behind a pillar. "Follow Marco. Stop the destruction. Tell the hospital to move Kalendra's sample to a secret container — or give it to whoever walks in needing an IVF procedure today, I don't care. Just make sure that sample survives, in whatever womb it ends up. I want a grandchild, not a void."

Fate began to deal its hand. On one side, a desperate young woman was heading toward a clinic with borrowed money. On the other, a mafia patriarch was fighting to save his bloodline by any means necessary.

The International Hope Fertility Clinic near the Mexican border was no place for the law-abiding. Here, money bought everything — from fake IDs to no-questions-asked IVF procedures.

In one of the clinic's cold, sterile corridors, Marco walked with a tense expression, carrying Kalendra's official destruction order. He didn't know that Elson Senior's men shadowed his every step.

"Here's the patient file under Kalendra Elson." Marco handed the documents to a shifty-eyed lab technician. "Mr. Elson wants this sample destroyed immediately. In front of me."

The technician nodded, but before his hand could reach the destruct button on the nitrogen storage unit, his phone buzzed.

A text message: Ten times your salary if you swap the tube now. Let Marco see an empty tube get destroyed.

The technician swallowed hard. He glanced toward the lab door, where a man dressed entirely in black — Elson Senior's operative — gave a subtle nod.

Meanwhile, in the dim waiting room, Sienna sat in an agony of nerves. She'd registered under a fake name, face hidden behind a surgical mask. Her hands trembled around the bag of cash she'd "borrowed" from Harris.

"Patient number 404, please come in," a nurse called.

Sienna stood. This was it. The first step toward her freedom. She didn't care who the donor was — she assumed anyone donating sperm at an illegal clinic like this was just someone who needed money. All she wanted was a child so Holland could never sell her again.

Back in the laboratory, a carefully orchestrated chaos was unfolding.

The technician, hands shaking, retrieved the silver tube marked ELSON-VEO-99 — Kalendra Elson's sample. Following the secret instructions from Kalendra's father, he had to pull it from the destruction queue immediately.

"Sorry — the machine's acting up a little," the technician told Marco, buying time.

In one swift motion, he swapped Kalendra's tube with a pre-staged empty one. The empty tube went into the destroyer. CRUNCH. It shattered to pieces in front of Marco's eyes.

"Done. Mr. Elson's sample has been destroyed," the technician announced. Marco nodded, satisfied, and left immediately to report mission accomplished to the boss.

But the moment Marco disappeared from sight, the technician broke into a cold sweat. Elson Senior's operative stepped into the lab.

"Where's the real tube?" the man asked flatly.

"H-here. But where do I put it? If it stays in the system, Mr. Kalendra could get suspicious eventually."

"Insert it into the first illegal patient's procedure today. Whoever she is. Elson Senior wants this sample to take root — he doesn't care whose womb it's in. We'll monitor from a distance."

The technician scanned the queue. His eyes landed on number 404. "There's a young woman. Just went into the procedure room."

"Do it now. And make sure every medical record is wiped after the procedure's complete."

In the quiet procedure room, Sienna lay on the table. She had no idea that in a matter of minutes, the sample entering her body wouldn't be from some broke anonymous donor.

It would be the heir-seed of the most feared crime syndicate in the world — Black Lotus.

"Take a deep breath, miss. We're beginning the procedure," the doctor said.

Sienna squeezed her eyes shut. She pictured Holland's face. Mahesa's. Her grandmother's.

"Starting today, I belong to none of you. I am the mother of my own child."

She didn't realize she'd just walked into a lion's den far more dangerous than the one she'd escaped. Kalendra Elson's sample — the grieving, allegedly impotent widower — had just found a new home.

Two days before Sienna left.

CRASH!

The sound of a vase shattering into a thousand pieces echoed through the Holland family's living room. Mahesa stood with his face contorted in rage, one hand still cupping the area between his legs where a vicious throb persisted.

"That bitch! You told me she was obedient, Holland!" Mahesa screamed, unhinged. "She nearly crippled me! She came at me like a goddamn animal!"

"Calm down, Mahesa. It was probably just a panic reaction. Sienna can't possibly know how to fight — she's a sheltered homebody, she's weak—"

"Weak my ass!" Mahesa spat. "She had me in an arm lock that nearly snapped my bone! Now she's missing, and that money I gave you — I want every cent back if you can't drag her in front of me by tonight!"

In the corner of the room, Grandmother Marisa — the family's imperious matriarch — rapped her cane against the floor. Her sharp eyes turned on Scarlett, Sienna's biological mother, who could only stand trembling in the far corner.

"Ungrateful wretch!" Marisa snarled. "Raised in this mansion, and she repays us by running off like some common whore. Sienna is damaged goods — rotten seed, just like her father! Worthless!"

"I-I'm sorry, Mother... Sienna was probably just scared," Scarlett whispered.

"Scared? She's conniving, Scarlett! Look at what your daughter's done — she's blown up a major business deal!" Marisa wheeled on Holland. "Find her. Drag her back. Tie her up if you have to! Don't let her run off with this family's dignity!"

Meanwhile, on the other sofa, Aluna — Holland's biological daughter and Sienna's stepsister, only a year younger — lounged with studied boredom, examining her nails. A thin smile hid behind her phone.

Good riddance, Aluna thought cheerfully.

Holland and Mahesa had always been fixated on Sienna's classic beauty. With Sienna out of the picture, Aluna would finally be the only princess in this house.

The night wore on, but Scarlett's anxiety was a dam about to break. She knew her daughter couldn't survive alone out there without help. Only one name surfaced in her mind — someone she desperately missed but equally feared, because of old wounds.

Harris.

Her eldest son, who had cut ties with her the day she chose to marry Holland. Scarlett slipped out of the house and drove to a modest apartment on the outskirts of the city.

With shaking hands, she knocked on the door again and again.

Click.

The door opened to reveal Harris, disheveled, dark circles under his eyes. His gaze hardened the instant he saw who it was.

"Mom?" His voice came out flat. Cold. "What are you doing here? Aren't you happy enough in your Holland palace?"

"Harris... please..." Scarlett broke down, abandoning any pretense of composure. "Sienna is gone. She ran from Mahesa's hotel. Is she here? Please, just tell me she's safe."

Harris said nothing for a long moment. He could see the exhaustion and genuine terror carved into his mother's face. But the disappointment ran too deep.

"She was here," he said tonelessly.

Scarlett's eyes lit up. "Where is she? I need to talk—"

"She's gone. Far away," Harris cut her off. He leaned against the doorframe. "And don't expect you or Holland to find her. Sienna chose her own path because you could never protect her in that hellhouse."

"Harris, she's still so young, she—"

"She's not a kid anymore, Mom! She's braver than you ever were!" Harris's voice climbed. "She left to save herself from the scumbags you people picked out for her. Go home, Mom. Tell Holland that Sienna's dead or whatever — I don't care. Just stop looking for her, if you have an ounce of love left for her."

Harris shut the door hard, right in Scarlett's face, leaving her sobbing in the cold hallway.

A few hours later, Aluna drifted into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of cold orange juice as though no catastrophe had occurred.

Scarlett, Sienna's mother, sat slumped at the dining table, sniffling into her hands. Aluna approached and set the glass down with a deliberate little clink.

"God, Mom... stop crying already. That sound is giving me a headache," Aluna said, her tone dripping with false concern while her eyes glittered with mockery.

Scarlett looked up through swollen eyes. "Aluna, your sister is in danger. How can you be this calm?"

Aluna let out a pretty laugh — melodious and laced with poison. She bent down, bringing her face level with Scarlett's, and whispered so neither Holland nor Marisa could hear.

"Sienna isn't in danger, Mom. She's just a fraud," Aluna hissed. "She ran because she knew she'd never get her hands on Dad's money. She's selfish. She left, and now Mom gets to take the fall. Is that what a loving daughter does?"

"Sienna isn't like that!" Scarlett protested weakly.

"No? Then why didn't she take you with her? Why did she only think about saving herself?" Aluna straightened up and twirled a strand of her hair. "Mom should just accept it — Sienna was a parasite in this house. Now the parasite's been pulled out. Isn't life going to be so much more peaceful without watching Dad beat Sienna every day?"

Aluna sipped her juice slowly, then flashed a wide smile.

"Besides, Mom... I actually helped Sienna. You're welcome."

Scarlett's eyes went wide. "Helped? How?"

"I'm the one who whispered to Dad that Uncle Mahesa had his eye on Sienna. I told Dad that Sienna secretly liked Uncle Mahesa too. If I hadn't said that, you think Dad would've sold her off that fast?"

"Y-you... you planned all of this?" Scarlett covered her mouth, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Aluna shrugged casually. "I just sped up the inevitable, Mom. I wanted her gone as soon as possible. Too bad Uncle Mahesa's plan fell apart because Sienna turned out to have a mean right hook. But whatever — point is, she's a wanted woman now. She'll never dare show her face here again."

Aluna leaned in close to Scarlett's ear again, and this time the threat was unmistakable.

"So don't even think about looking for her. If Mom starts making noise and stressing Dad out, I won't hesitate to tell him that Mom's been hiding jewelry from Sienna's late father as an escape fund. Want to get thrown out on the street too?"

Scarlett fell silent. Aluna — the girl who had always played the spoiled daddy's girl in front of Holland — was in truth a calculating little devil. She left Scarlett hunched over the table in defeat. A single tear fell onto the wrinkled skin of her left hand.

"Sienna... forgive me for not being able to do anything for you."