My sister was struck down on her way home from school, sent flying by my husband's young assistant, who'd been driving drunk.

The doctors couldn't save her. They pronounced her dead.

I filed suit that same day and dragged the woman into court.

But on the day of the trial, my parents were tied up inside an abandoned factory, strapped head to toe with explosives.

Brent Stephens's younger sister Stephens looked down at me, his voice glacial.

"If you don't drop the charges, I can't promise these bombs won't go off all on their own. Your sister is already dead. Why insist on destroying another girl's life?"

"If your sister hadn't darted into the road, Tabitha never would have panicked and hit the gas instead of the brake. When it comes down to it, your sister got herself killed!"

So that was it. Brent thought the dead girl was my sister.

That was why he'd stoop to threatening me with my parents' lives to make me drop the case!

I let out a cold laugh.

"Dropping the charges requires a signature from the victim's family. I'm not qualified to give it."

——

Brent was famous for his obsession with his little sister.

If she so much as scraped a knee, he could turn all of Crestport City upside down.

Later, terrified some no-account boy would lure her away, he'd shipped her off to an elite all-girls private school in high school. Tuition ran more than ten million a year.

When I refused to sign, his face went dark in an instant.

"Bella Pruitt, I'm informing you. I'm not negotiating with you."

"Tabitha just graduated college. Will you only be satisfied once you've ruined the rest of her life?"

"Your sister was going to marry off into someone else's family anyway. Fine, I'll throw a little more compensation your family's way. Call it something for your parents."

Then he glanced toward the two elderly figures bound to the chairs, a flicker of menace at the bottom of his eyes.

"You'd better decide quickly. Otherwise I can't promise when these explosives might go off!"

I looked at the certainty written all over Brent's face, and felt a chill go straight through me.

To clear Tabitha's name, he would actually threaten me with my parents' lives.

I stared at the bomb counting down, and it was as if a knife were twisting in my chest.

"Brent, are you even human? The one who got run down and killed was our sister!"

His eyes darkened, and he corrected me, his voice cold.

"The one who got killed was your sister, not mine!"

I looked at him and laughed coldly.

I'd only said our sister, and already he was scrambling to wash his hands of her.

If he knew the dead girl was his own sister, would he still be forcing me to sign that family release?

Brent's parents had died the year he turned eighteen. Back then his uncle, fighting for the inheritance, kidnapped the two siblings.

To let Brent escape, his sister stayed behind alone to hold off the kidnappers, and was tortured for three days and three nights in their den.

By the time she was found, she was barely clinging to life.

From that day on, Brent had sworn he would protect his sister, that he would never let her come to the slightest harm.

Thinking of everything Brent's sister had once suffered, I couldn't help but sigh.

"Brent, do you have any idea? Your sister still had breath in her when she was hit. Tabitha was afraid the treatment and recovery afterward would come back on her, so she reversed and ran the girl over again, crushed her to death while she was still alive."

Brent remained unmoved. He only tossed a family release down in front of me, his eyes cold.

"That was nothing but a last flicker before the end. And besides, your sister clinging to life by a thread would have been its own kind of torture. Better she found release and earned your parents a little compensation. That's the practical thing."

I looked at the contempt at the bottom of his eyes, and my heart sank to rock bottom.

"Brent, my sister was killed by Tabitha that day because she'd gone to buy you a birthday cake. Did you know that?"

Brent looked down at me, his eyes brimming with cold contempt.

"She only bought me that cake to curry favor with the Stephens family! I never wanted it!"

"Now hurry up and sign! Stop wasting time!"

His gaze turned vicious as he pressed a hand down on my shoulder, forcing me to look at my parents, trembling in terror beneath the strapped-on bombs.

I stared at the explosives on their bodies, counting down their final three minutes, and clenched my teeth.

"Brent, if my parents hadn't called in every connection and resource they had to clear out those uncles of yours, do you think you'd be sitting safely in the CEO's chair at Stephens Group right now?"

Brent's eyes swept over my parents' aged faces, his expression full of disdain.

"They flattered and fawned over me for one reason only—to keep you in your seat as Mrs. Stephens."

The words froze something in my chest. I curled my fingers tight into my palms, my voice forced out from between my teeth.

"Fine. I'll sign!"

Only after he got the answer he wanted did Brent finally smile in satisfaction, turning to the bodyguard at his side.

"Let them go!"

Then Brent shot me a warning look.

"I'll post this release agreement all over the internet. Don't even think about filing a second suit!"

With that, Brent immediately wired me ten million dollars.

"Consider this compensation for your sister. Don't ever come looking to give Tabitha Henson trouble again!"

I looked at the long string of zeros in the text on my phone and pressed the return button without a second's hesitation.

"You can keep this blood money. After all, I'm not the victim's family!"

The moment Brent heard me, his face went ashen.

"Bella, what does your sister's death have to do with me? Don't let me catch you cursing my sister behind my back, or I will never let you off!"

With that, Brent took the freshly signed release agreement and walked out without looking back.

The instant he was gone, the fear caught up with me, and I threw myself into my parents' arms.

My mother looked at me, her heart aching.

"Bella, you used every resource you had to pave his way, to get him to where he is today. Was it really worth it?"

A flicker of cold passed through my eyes as I lifted my gaze to her.

"Mom, tell Grandpa to cancel every partnership with Stephens Group. I want a divorce!"

Brent had only beaten out those uncles of his because my grandfather backed him from the shadows.

If he was tired of the CEO's chair, then someone else could take it.

I looked at the injuries on my parents and, with no time to think any further, took them straight to the hospital to be checked.

Thankfully they'd only suffered a bad scare and needed a few days of rest and recovery in the hospital.

I had just finished the admission paperwork when I saw Brent walking this way, supporting Tabitha on his arm.

Tabitha leaned weakly against Brent, her eyes brimming with self-pity.

"Mr. Stephens, ever since the accident, the second I close my eyes I see all that blood and torn flesh. The doctor says I have severe depression and need to be hospitalized for treatment, but every room here is taken!"

Brent's gaze immediately fixed on the room behind me, his eyes turning cold.

"Bella, go tell your parents to give up their room for Tabitha."

I stared at him, unable to believe it.

"Brent, you had my parents kidnapped, they've got injuries all over their bodies, and now you want them to give up their room to Tabitha, the murderer?"

At my words, a flicker of scorn crossed Tabitha's eyes.

"The accident was just that, an accident. Besides, hasn't your family already taken Mr. Stephens's money? Or do you think it wasn't enough, and now you're trying to use your parents to squeeze another payout out of him?"

The onlookers gathered around began pointing fingers at me and my parents.

"So it was them all along! Back then they swore up and down they'd get justice for that girl, and in the end it was all about the money. They didn't even have the nerve to show up in court!"

"Took the money and still came to the hospital to play the victim. They must think it wasn't enough, want to squeeze out another payout. Greedy, the whole pack of them!"

"Shameless, really. Traded their own daughter's life for a lifetime of comfort, and now they want to cash in their parents' lives too?"

Brent's gaze was cold as he looked at me.

"Since your family already took the money, don't go using your sister's death to milk more sympathy. Hurry up and clear out of this room for Tabitha!"

"And if you people hadn't kept pushing Tabitha, she never would have developed depression in the first place. Your family owes her this!"

His words struck me as nothing short of absurd. I let out a cold laugh.

"The one who ran someone over and killed her is your Tabitha Henson. We have never owed a single person anything!"

Seeing me refuse to back down, his face darkened further.

"If you think the settlement wasn't enough, I can wire you another ten million. Just give up the room for Tabitha."

Tabitha chimed in from the side.

"Twenty million is enough to buy your whole family's lives, Bella. You really ought to know when you've had enough!"

The moment the words left her mouth, Brent shot a glance at the bodyguards behind him.

In an instant a swarm of them rushed into the room, viciously hauling my parents out of their beds.

My heart dropped. I scrambled to put myself between them and Mom and Dad, glaring at Brent until my eyes burned.

"Brent, my parents are still your in-laws. Aren't you afraid this'll come back on you?"

His eyes went dark.

"Bella, everything you have, I gave you. Even your parents getting a room this nice is only because of the Stephens name."

I looked at him and gave a scornful little smile.

"Brent, how long has it been since you last spoke to your own sister?"

At the mention of his sister, Brent froze for a beat, and then his face turned grimmer still. "My sister got run down because of her own rotten luck. She deserved it!"

"My sister is safe and sound at her all-girls school. Don't you dare put my sister in the same breath as yours!"

I gave a cold snort.

"Who really deserved what's coming to them, you'll find out soon enough!"

For the days that followed, Brent stayed at the hospital looking after Tabitha.

When the hospital morgue couldn't reach Brent, they ended up calling me instead.

His sister's body had been held as long as it could be. She had to be buried.

Remembering that the girl had once called me her sister too, I softened, and I arranged a funeral for her.

On the day of the funeral, I had just set out toward the Stephens family cemetery with the procession.

From a distance I saw Brent and Tabitha walking straight toward us.

The instant Tabitha spotted the coffin, she clamped a hand over her mouth, her face full of disgust.

"I finally got discharged today, and the first thing I see when I get home is a coffin? Isn't this just putting a curse on me?"

"Besides, how can you bury someone who died such an ugly death in the Stephens cemetery? Are you trying to make the Stephens family the laughingstock of all Crestport City?"

Brent's expression was sinister enough to frighten anyone.

"Bella, your sister is dead. What gives you the right to drag her into our Stephens cemetery for burial? Are you trying to foul our family's ground?"

I stared at the two of them, my eyes bloodshot, my hands clenched tight together.

"Tabitha Henson, you're a killer. What right do you have to point fingers at the dead? Aren't you afraid she'll crawl up out of the ground in the dead of night and come for your life?"

Looking at the coffin behind me, Tabitha gave a shudder, then flung herself into Brent's arms like a wronged child.

"Mr. Stephens, one look at that coffin and I'm right back at the scene of the crash that day. I feel like my depression's about to flare up again!"