I've booked a hot air balloon trip for my in-laws in commemoration of their wedding anniversary.

Little do I know that as soon as the hot air balloon lifts off the ground, 1,000 drones appear out of nowhere and form a sentence in the sky.

"Natalie, my ethereal beloved, you're the only one I ever want in this world."

I feel as though my blood has turned into ice. It turns out that my husband, Theodore Shaw, is in the middle of launching a grand confession to his first love, Natalie Quinn.

As soon as the line goes through, I exclaim in a quivering tone, "Theodore, hurry up and command the drones to avoid the hot air balloon's route! Mom and Dad are—"

Before I can finish speaking, Theodore cuts me off with a sneer.

"Back then, you exaggerated Natalie's parents' crimes at the court. When they died from despair in jail, you were busy celebrating your win streak as an ace lawyer.

"Now, I want you to have a taste of what it feels like to lose your own parents too!"

Then, Theodore commands his subordinates loudly, "Lock on the target! I want you to use the drones to crash the hot air balloon out of the way! I want to hear how loudly it'll explode when it plummets!"

Natalie keeps egging him on at the side in a sickly sweet voice.

"Precisely! I want it to explode as beautifully as the fireworks!"

The hot air balloon keeps getting attacked by the drones that keep flying in their direction at high speed. I can hear my in-laws' cries of despair, sending shivers down my spine.

That's when I roar at my phone hysterically.

"Theodore Shaw, you absolute bastard! Open your damn eyes and look at the sky! Your own parents are the one riding the hot air balloon, dammit!"

On the other end of the line, Theodore Shaw dismissed my frantic shouting with a scoff.

"Juliette Kane, do you honestly think I'm still going to believe a word you say? My parents are on their private cruise in the Aurelian Sea right now. A lawyer like you would say anything to save your own skin."

Natalie Quinn let out a soft, amused laugh and chimed in, "Theo, isn't twisting the truth what she does best? Now, she's trying to hide behind your parents."

Theodore's fury was ignited, and he issued another order.

"Activate the sonic pulse. I want their eardrums blown out!"

Dozens of drones shifted formation at once, releasing a shrill, high-frequency sound wave. The hot air balloon basket shook violently, and the glass goblets at our feet shattered into powder in an instant.

My mother-in-law, Margaret Kane, had a pre-existing heart condition.

Between the violent shaking and the shock, her asthma flared up in an instant. Her face turned purple as she struggled to breathe.

My eyes widened. I rushed over, desperate to get the emergency inhaler from Margaret's Hermès bag.

Just then, a helicopter roared to a hover not far away.

The cabin door slid open, revealing Theodore propping up a Barrett M82. Its muzzle locked onto me with pinpoint accuracy.

With a bang, the bullet hissed through the air, striking the bag with lethal precision.

The strap gave way instantly, sending the Hermès bag tumbling 300 feet below. The inhaler that could've saved Margaret was gone with it.

Theodore's icy voice came through the loudspeaker, echoing through the valley.

"I'll give you one last chance. Face the camera and confess to forging the evidence against Natalie's parents. Then sign the asset transfer agreement and hand over all assets in your name to Natalie. Otherwise, the next round goes straight through your forehead."

A drone carried an agreement and a pen over to me, stopping steadily in front of me. The pen tip caught the sunlight with a sinister glint.

Before I could respond, my father-in-law, Richard Shaw, reached his limit. He seized the phone and bellowed into it, "You disgrace! I'm your father! Stop this right now!"

On the other end, Theodore clearly froze when he heard the voice, followed by a furious shout, "How dare you pretend to be my father? Crank up the power. Silence him!"

The sonic pulse intensified, and blood streamed from Richard's nose and mouth.

As if punishing him for a pathetic impersonation, Theodore fired another shot without the slightest hesitation.

The bullet struck Richard squarely in the shoulder, and blood spread rapidly across his shirt.

Margaret gripped my hand with all the strength she had left and shook her head weakly at me, telling me not to sign.

I looked at the two elderly people whose lives were hanging by a thread, then met the love and resolve in their eyes. It felt as if my heart was being torn to pieces.

Ultimately, my hand shook as I picked up the pen and signed my name on the agreement.

The moment I was done, a drone indeed flew over, carrying a small metal canister labeled, "Emergency Inhaler."

A flicker of hope flared in my chest, and I reached out to grab it.

However, Natalie snatched the sniper rifle from Theodore's hands, her smile sickeningly sweet and venomous.

"Theo, if you're going to break someone, you have to hit them where it hurts. That's what makes it fun."

She smiled as she pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the inhaler in midair, blasting it apart. Pepper spray exploded through the basket, sharp and choking, filling the air in an instant.

I covered my mouth and nose, but tears kept streaming down my face.

Meanwhile, Margaret coughed violently, and the little color she had left drained from her face.

Theodore's unrestrained laughter poured from the loudspeaker. "Natalie, you're terrible. But why would I ever save them? I just wanted to see Juliette choking on pepper spray until she's groveling and begging for mercy."

My heart dropped.

From the beginning, he had never meant to spare any of us. The agreement was a lie, and so was his promise.

The swarm of drones began its final attack.

Several specially modified drones had cold, gleaming mechanical arms protruding from them as they began cutting through the cables that connected the basket to the hot air balloon.

The sound of metal grinding against metal grated on my ears.

The first cable broke with a piercing snap, and the basket lurched.

And when the second cable gave way, the basket began to tilt precariously.

Desperate to protect Margaret and me, Richard lunged toward the mechanical arms with a roaring scream, "Stop this, you animals!"

The basket tipped sharply.

Richard lost his balance, and his body was thrown outward.

"Dad!" I caught his wrist in a desperate grip.

At that exact moment, the watch on his wrist caught the sun, flashing with a blinding glare. It was a custom Patek Philippe father-and-son watch.

There were only two in the entire world.

The watch was called Starlight, and I had seen the other one on Theodore's wrist.

Beside him, his assistant gasped. "Mr. Theodore, that's Mr. Shaw's Starlight. You said yourself, to see that watch is to see the man!"

Silence fell on the other end of the phone.

A final spark of hope flared in my chest. Was he finally going to realize these were his own parents?

Natalie immediately raised her voice in protest. "It's just a knockoff, Theo! Did you forget? You spoke to your dad on the satellite phone this morning. They said the view over the Aurelian Sea was gorgeous, and they even told you to take good care of their future daughter-in-law!"

Those words erased any doubt in Theodore's mind.

My hope disintegrated.

When he spoke again, his tone was icy. "Cut the main cable."

"No!" I screamed.

The mechanical arms began cutting through the final few main cables.

I held on to Richard's hand with everything I had, and my shoulder joint popped out of its socket from the strain. The agonizing pain nearly made me black out, but I refused to let go.

Richard looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Juliette, let go. Don't lose your life trying to save us."

"I'm not letting go!"

I clenched my teeth as tears blurred my vision.

The final cable was down to only a few strands of steel wire, and those were severed within seconds.

The basket began to plummet. Wind roared past my ears as we dropped from 300 feet in the air.

Theodore's crazed laughter drifted faintly in the wind. "You brought this onto yourself, Juliette!"

Natalie's saccharine voice followed. "Theo, they're about to be crushed to pieces."

I closed my eyes.

Just then, Richard used the last of his strength to shove Margaret and me toward the corner of the basket.

There was an emergency parachute pack there.

"Juliette, pull the cord!" Richard yelled.

My hand shook as I clawed for the rip cord. The parachute bloomed open above us, instantly slowing our descent.

With every ounce of strength left in me, I wailed toward the helicopter, "Theodore, you have to save Dad, or you'll regret this for the rest of your life!"

Theodore merely sneered, raising his sniper rifle once more. This time, the muzzle was aimed at my wrist.

"My dad is enjoying his life on a cruise, but you… You're about to learn what it feels like to lose those closest to you!"

The crack of the rifle echoed in the air before the bullet tore through my wrist.

The pain drained the strength from my hand in an instant, and Richard fell toward the bottomless cliff like a kite with its string cut.

"Dad!"

The scream that tore from my throat was the most harrowing sound I had ever made.

My vision went dark, and I nearly passed out. The basket hung precariously by a single, fraying cable, swaying over the cliff.

Beside me, Margaret lay unconscious, her fate uncertain.

Not far away, Theodore and Natalie sat comfortably inside the helicopter, casually sipping red wine as if they were merely watching a performance.

Natalie clapped her hands, and a drone carrying a black metal box hovered toward us.

From a distance, she smiled at us and said, "I heard killer bee venom can stimulate the heart, Ms. Kane. I'm only trying to help save her."

The box opened above us. Hundreds, then thousands of black killer bees swarmed out.

Their buzzing sent a chill running down my spine as the swarm rushed toward us.

Ignoring the pain in my wrist and the weight of my own despair, I threw my battered body over Margaret and shielded her as tightly as I could.

That was when I saw Richard's briefcase. It had fallen into the corner of the basket and gotten wedged there. The zipper had split open, revealing the edge of a metal device inside.

Recognition struck me. It was the military-grade drone signal jammer Richard's company had just developed, the one they hadn't announced to the public yet.

Only yesterday, he had boasted with pride that once activated, every drone within a ten-mile radius would be rendered useless.

In an instant, the 1,000 drones that had been hovering so menacingly suddenly went dead.

Like headless chickens, they lost all control, colliding into one another in mid-air before plunging into the depths of the cliff.

The smiles on Theodore and Natalie's faces stiffened.

Theodore immediately sensed that something was wrong. This was absolutely not technology that ordinary civilians could get their hands on.

Panic finally broke through his composure as he demanded, "What did you do? What is that thing?"

He lifted the sniper rifle again, his eyes burning with a murderous rage. He leveled the muzzle at my head, snarling, "You bitch! You ruined my proposal. I'm going to kill you!"

He pulled the trigger without hesitation.

I closed my eyes and waited for death.

But instead, a sharper, clearer crack echoed through the air.

A second bullet came flying in at greater velocity from the side and struck Theodore's bullet in midair with perfect accuracy, shattering it into a spray of brilliant sparks.

My eyes snapped open, only to see that five pitch-black attack helicopters marked with golden griffin emblems had appeared out of nowhere.

They descended menacingly, surrounding Theodore's private helicopter.

A hatch on one of the attack helicopters swung open. A tall man in a military uniform rappelled down from the helicopter and landed steadily on Theodore's aircraft.

With a heavy punch, he sent Theodore crashing to the floor before seizing the rifle from his hands in one fluid motion.