He helped the frail Anais away.

I watched the uneven figures retreat, my nose burning, my vision blurring into mist.

He said Anais had already paid the price.

But the one who paid the most was me.

What I lost was my child.

Jasper’s body was sent for cremation.

And only after settling Anais and making sure she was safely resting did Xander finally remember that I was still sitting alone in the police station, helpless and abandoned.

On the way home, neither of us mentioned the fact that I had stood up.

It became the last unspoken agreement between us.

Xander looked exhausted, his voice hoarse, sounding like a plea and a warning at the same time.

“Isadora, if Anais’s parents had not sponsored me back then, I would never have made it through the police academy. I might have been forced by my family into a different life altogether.”

“They gave me a new future. Now they sacrificed themselves and became martyrs. I cannot let their only child come to harm.”

His voice caught in his throat, as if he were begging forgiveness for himself.

I turned my head to look out the window and calmly finished the words he could not bring himself to say.

“So you deliberately leaked my undercover identity and staged a so called revenge car crash.”

“So you could send Jasper to the hospital and make him Anais’s backup heart.”

The car fell into dead silence.

A very long time passed before his voice finally drifted out, broken and barely audible.

“I truly had no choice. I begged every doctor and specialist. Her life could not hold on until a suitable donor appeared.”

“Isadora, we can still have children in the future. I am willing to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

His apology was like a blade, carving into my heart again and again.

I thought of the photograph my parents entrusted to me as they lay dying.

The boy in the photo looked clear eyed and stubborn, his gaze clean and resolute.

It was him.

My parents praised him endlessly, saying he was responsible and principled, and asked me to continue supporting him.

From the first moment I saw him, I fell deeply in love with him.

Afraid of hurting his pride, I never told him I was his sponsor.

I believed in love, and I believed in him.

But I never imagined this.

Someone had stolen my kindness and claimed my grace.

And he, without hesitation, repaid the wrong person.

In the end, the one who died was our child.

To keep me from disturbing Anais while she recovered, Xander locked me in the house for seven full days.

He came back every day, cooked as usual, told me little stories about his day, pretending this family had not been shattered.

And I did not say a single word for seven days.

Until the seventh day after Jasper’s death, when I saw Anais again.

Her complexion was rosy, her health astonishingly good.

She stepped over my son’s remains and lived more vibrantly than ever.

Anais did not bother to hide her contempt, the corner of her mouth lifting into a cruel curve.

“Isadora, I never thought that the pride of the police academy back then would end up like this.”

Her gaze fell on my slightly trembling legs, her mockery deepening.

“My fault. I forgot you are disabled now. Of course you cannot do anything.”

She lowered her head, as if savoring a pleasant memory.

“Do you know? When I cut him open, I did not use any anesthesia on your son. Before the pain knocked him unconscious, he kept calling your name.”

She spread her hands, as if showing off a trophy.

“No choice. The more pain he felt, the more active his heart stayed.”

I felt my reason.

Cracking apart, inch by inch.

“Anais, are you not afraid of retribution?”

“Aren’t you afraid that one day Xander will learn the truth and make you pay with your life?”

Halfway through my words, her smile suddenly froze.

But very quickly, her cold gaze swept past me toward the stairwell beside us.

“He will never know.”

“And before that happens, I will make sure you are silenced forever.”

The moment those words fell, the air turned icy.

She took a step forward, murderous intent clear.

Thud.

Just a second before the door was pushed open, Anais suddenly threw herself backward, her body crashing down the stairs.

Blood spread along the steps one by one, the sight horrifying.

Xander’s face went deathly pale. He rushed over, almost screaming.

“Anais. Anais. What happened to you?”

He knelt beside her, his hands shaking so badly he could barely hold her arm.

Blood bubbled at the corner of Anais’s mouth. Her breathing was so weak it seemed ready to stop at any moment, yet she forced herself to look up at Xander.

“Xander… don’t blame Isadora… her child just died… she is emotionally unstable…”

“Just take it… take it as my atonement… the debt you owed my parents… is repaid now…”

Before she finished speaking, her head tilted to the side and she fell into a deep coma.

Xander completely lost control.

The next second, he lifted his head and looked at me. There was no reason left in his eyes, only madness, rage, and hatred.

“Isadora, what do you want from me?”

He was almost roaring. “Is everything I have done still not enough for you? Do you only feel satisfied when you force Anais to her death?”

He pulled out his baton and advanced toward me step by step, tears hanging at the corners of his eyes, his expression on the brink of insanity.

“You forced me. You forced all of this!”

The baton came down.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

By the fifth strike, the pain was so overwhelming that I could not make a sound. My knee felt as if it had been smashed into gravel.

He was panting, his hands trembling, yet he still clenched his teeth and stomped down hard on my already broken leg.

“When you hurt Anais, you are hurting me. Do you hear me?”

I was dragged back home like a criminal being dealt with, locked into a room by his own hands.

The moment the door closed, he looked at Anais on the ambulance below. His eyes turned completely cold.

“When you come to your senses, I will let you out.”

“I owe you, and I will repay it. But you have no right to harm Anais.”

Bang.

The door was locked shut.

I curled up on the floor. The pain of shattered bones tore at my will again and again.

But that pain slowly brought clarity instead.

Dragging my crippled body, I crawled to the study, pried open the panel beneath the desk, and pulled out a safe that had been sealed away for years.

The password was my parents’ date of death.

Beep.

The box opened. Dust rose into the air, revealing stacks of old remittance records.

Recipient name: Xander.

From the time he was eight years old until he entered the police academy.

Every cent was the hope my parents had poured into him.

Beside them lay all the property my parents had left behind.

And a letter written in blood.

Inside was the path my parents prepared for me.

I was my parents’ proudest child.

I was an undercover agent for five years, surviving countless brushes with death.

I was not someone meant to be locked in a house, waiting to die.

I had to stand up.

For Jasper.

For myself.

I tore the bedsheets into strips and knotted them into a rope. Dragging my broken legs, I crawled inch by inch toward the window.

The wind on the tenth floor cut into flesh and bone like knives.

I clenched my teeth and relied on the strength of my arms, lowering myself bit by bit.

My skin was scraped raw, split open, flesh torn and bleeding.

My hands were worn down until bone nearly showed.

From daylight to nightfall, from brightness to pitch black, I did not know how many times I fell, or how many times I forced myself to hold on again.

Until I finally saw the iron gates of that compound.

The moment the searchlights turned on, I could no longer hold myself up and collapsed to my knees.

Trembling, I pressed my parents’ memorial photos to my chest and laid the blood letter on the ground.

At last, I raised my head toward the massive gate, my voice hoarse yet shaking the entire night.

“I, Isadora, served as an undercover agent for five years and was awarded first class merit multiple times!”

“Now I have been framed, my legs shattered, my child murdered. My family destroyed!”

I clenched my teeth and used the last of my strength to roar.

“I ask only for justice!”

That cry tore through the night sky.

At that moment, no one could remain unmoved.

The compound was especially guarded in the dead of night.

I dragged my festering broken legs all the way here, my body covered in blood, miserable to the point of terror.

The guards immediately raised their guns at me, eyes cold, alert and severe.

Until the searchlight illuminated the blood letter in my hands.

That was honor bought with life.

That was the path my parents secured for me with their lives.

The guard’s pupils shrank sharply, his vigilance slowly turning into reverence.

Before long, the lights inside the compound blazed on. Several men in black hurried over.

The man leading them walked with steady, forceful steps. Yet the closer he came to me, the more his pace slowed.

He stared at my bloodstained face, as if struggling to confirm an impossible truth.

At last, he reached out with a trembling hand and gently touched the blood letter in my grasp. The bloody handprints on it pierced his eyes.

“You… you are Brother Cyrus’s child, aren’t you?”

His voice carried an emotion he could not suppress.

“Isadora, all these years… we never dared to contact you. We were afraid of affecting your undercover mission.”

That name, Isadora, struck my heart like thunder.

Uncle Arlo forced down the redness in his eyes and managed a strained smile.

“Do not be afraid. Uncle Arlo is here. Your parents saved my life. Your business is my business.”

The guards beside him stepped forward one after another, each of them showing instinctive respect.

“Isadora, get up first. Everyone here is your parents’ friend.”

“Your parents gave their lives to protect us all. We are your real family.”

“Do not be afraid. With us here, no one will dare bully you.”

“Your parents entrusted you to us. We will never let you suffer injustice.”

Their voices were like beams of light, illuminating my pitch black world bit by bit.

I lifted my eyes blankly and looked at them.

Deep in my memory, the figures from old photos taken with my parents slowly overlapped.

My parents were gone, but the light they left behind had never gone out.

I had crawled all the way here. The broken bones had long pierced through flesh. The pain had nearly taken my consciousness.

Yet I had not shed a single tear.

Until this moment.

When I heard the word child, I could no longer hold back. My tears burst free.

“Uncle Arlo…”

My voice choked so badly I could barely continue. “I want you to uphold justice for me…”

“I was illegally detained. My legs were beaten until they broke. I crawled from daylight to nightfall just to reach this place.”

Emotion surged, my voice hoarse and breaking.

“I only want the child whose heart was cut out alive… to leave in peace.”

“I only want those who abused their power… to pay the price they deserve.”

When the words fell, deathly silence spread around us.

The next second.

Uncle Arlo froze, shock and fury crashing over him at once.

He had meant to help me up, but my words left him rooted in place.

The air itself seemed to carry the stench of blood.

The searchlight shone on me again.

My legs, twisted, broken, already blackened and festering, were fully exposed.

Uncle Arlo raised his hand sharply, covering his eyes.

He did not want me to see him, a man of iron and steel, shedding tears.

“Stretcher. Now. Get her to the hospital immediately.”

The guards lifted me with reddened eyes, minimizing every jolt as they carried me away.

Inside the hospital,

“This is outrageous!”

Uncle Arlo’s roar nearly shattered the ceiling. “Who gave them the nerve to treat a Gu family child like this?”

“Leaking an undercover identity is a capital crime. And cutting out a heart alive… are they even human?”

He was shaking with rage, like a lion provoked beyond restraint.

The doctor standing by my bed clenched his teeth. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke.

“Sir, there is a high concentration of banned substances in her system.”

“The side effects are extremely severe. After her legs were broken… she will most likely never stand again.”

Uncle Arlo shuddered violently.

As if this hurt him even more than hearing of Jasper’s death.

I only smiled faintly.

“I know.”

“He fed it to me for a year.”

The doctor stared at me in shock.

My gaze fell on my legs, fixed with steel pins. My smile was as bitter as a final breath before death.

“If Xander saw me like this now…”

“He would probably be very satisfied.”

“He finally got what he wanted.”

“I can no longer… stand between him and Anais.”

On the day my stitches were removed, the rain outside stopped.

I sat by the hospital bed, my fingers lightly tracing the thin document in my hand. On the white paper were two glaring words.

Divorce Agreement.

Simple. Cold. Leaving no room for hesitation.

Uncle Arlo’s people had already secured the evidence in the internal archives ahead of time.

All that remained for me was to sever every tie with the past.

Suppressing the ache in my chest, I slipped the agreement into an envelope. When I signed my name, my hand did not tremble at all.

“Xander, what you owe me, I will make you repay it little by little.”

Half an hour later, I had special agents send the letter by registered mail to Xander’s workplace.

No note.

No explanation.

Only one signature at the end.

Isadora.