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!"

“If she actually gets buried in the Stephens cemetery, my depression will never get better as long as I live!”

The moment Brent heard it, he pulled her into his arms, all tenderness, then turned a frigid gaze toward the bodyguards standing nearby.

“How does someone who died such a wretched death deserve a place in the Stephens family plot? Haul her off to the crematorium and burn her. Scatter the ashes straight into the sea.”

The words had barely left his mouth before several bodyguards lunged forward and wrenched me away.

My whole back slammed into the coffin, and the pain shot through me from spine to fingertips.

Watching them about to tear the coffin apart, I scrambled up off the ground like something gone mad.

“Brent, you can't treat the dead this way.”

Brent let out a cold snort.

“You already took the blood money for your sister's life, so that life belongs to me now. I can do whatever I want with her body!”

The instant he finished, a bodyguard jammed a blade into the lid and pried the coffin open.

Another reached in and dragged the body out like a piece of trash.

“Ah!”

The moment Tabitha saw the body she shrieked and pitched forward, knocking into the memorial lamp beside her.

The instant the lamp landed on my sister's body, the whole corpse caught fire.

Watching it burn, Tabitha put on a face of pure innocence.

“Mr. Stephens, I didn't mean to. The body just startled me, that's why I knocked into the lamp.”

Brent patted her back to soothe her.

“It's not your fault. Better that it burned, saves us a trip to the crematorium!”

My eyes were bloodshot as I looked at Brent.

“Brent, you'd better not regret a single thing you've done today!”

Brent gave a mocking laugh.

“Your sister's body got burned. What do I have to regret?”

With that, Brent scooped Tabitha up in his arms and stepped over the body in one long stride, walking toward the villa!

I watched his retreating back, both fists clenched.

If he'd only glanced down at the body one more time, he'd have seen that the charred, unrecognizable corpse was his own sister!

After settling the last of the arrangements, I came home exhausted.

The second I pushed the door open, I saw Tabitha leaning against Brent in a cozy, intimate pose, feeding him fruit.

Seeing me back, Tabitha's face twisted with disgust.

“Bella, you've just been touching a dead body. Don't go bringing all that bad luck back with you!”

Brent's gaze raked over me, cold.

“Don't go getting any ideas about burying your family in the Stephens cemetery from now on. Our plot isn't for just anyone!”

I watched the two of them play off each other, then threw a set of divorce papers down in front of him.

“Brent, let's get divorced!”

Brent stared at the papers on the table, stunned for a second, then shot up from his chair, slamming his hand down in humiliated rage.

“Your sister got run over by a car and now you want to divorce me?”

I nodded.

“Yes. Because my sister got run over by a car.”

Brent snorted coldly.

“Bella, everything you have, I gave you. Once you leave me, I'd like to see who in all of Crestport City would want some piece of used goods like you.”

Tabitha stepped forward too, all false sympathy.

“Bella, a housewife like you walks away from Mr. Stephens and you'll really have nothing left. After all, Mr. Stephens is worth over a billion dollars!”

I looked at her and gave a mocking smile.

“Since you like him so much, he's all yours!”

With that, I turned without a moment's hesitation and walked out of that sickening house!