Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run

Rumors swirled for weeks that the mall was haunted.

Henry, always the schemer, saw trouble coming a mile away. Before anyone could stop him, he swept all his money overseas and started living it up abroad, not a care in the world.

That winter was the coldest anyone could remember.

Because of Henry's shady real estate deals, a lot of construction workers went unpaid for years. Some of them, desperate and unable to feed their families, ended it all by jumping off the department store's roof with their loved ones. The city never forgot.

And as if that wasn't enough, Henry kept flaunting his life online from overseas. Even at sixty, he was still posting all sorts of outrageous things, so his name stayed infamous-everyone on the internet knew exactly who he was.

Eden was the unlucky orphan left behind. Her mother, naive and young, died in a fire not long after Eden was born. Her father-heartless Henry-ran off without a backward glance.

No one really understood why Dylan brought Eden home, but one thing was clear: her life changed for the better after that.

past tied to the corrupt official who destroyed so many

group chat went

still talks about Henry," someone messaged. "That winter, they said you could see people lined up outside the old mall, all of them desperate enough

stiff his workers," another said. "People bought homes from him and never got them. They were

in history as

top of her class, thought she'd found true love, and ended up

"Eden's so lucky, huh?"

You know who leaked this story? Her life will probably turn out even worse

long. Soon, everyone online was talking about it. Henry's name shot up

that Eden-the last of

like her aren't welcome in Country Z," they