"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!

That same day I contacted my lawyer and filed for divorce.

Brent never expected me to go through with it. He fired off a dozen furious voice messages.

"Bella, look at you, all grown a backbone. First you drop the appeal against Tabitha, and now you've got the nerve to file for divorce?"

"From the day you married me, you've never worked a single day. Let's see how you survive in Crestport City once you leave me!"

"You want a divorce? Fine. But you walk out with nothing. Anything that belongs to the Stephens family, don't think you'll take a dime of it!"

My filing for divorce blew up into a huge spectacle, and Brent went around online spreading rumors that I'd cheated during the marriage.

He even publicly accused me of grabbing my sister's settlement money and rushing to divorce so I could run off and live it up with my lover!

Soon the day of the hearing arrived.

Because my earlier suit against Tabitha Henson had caused such an uproar.

This time countless reporters and curious onlookers showed up, packing the courthouse entrance until there wasn't room to breathe.

"Bella, last time you sued Tabitha Henson and then took the money to settle on the day of the hearing. Now you're suing for divorce. Are you addicted to shaking people down for cash?"

"Bella, word is you cheated during your marriage. Can't wait to take your sister's blood money and fly off into the sunset with your lover, huh?"

Brent stood off to the side too, looking down at me from on high.

"Bella, it's not too late to withdraw the suit. If this actually goes to court, you'll walk out with nothing!"

I looked at him and let out a cold laugh.

"I'm waiting for the moment the judge says it out loud!"

With that, I walked calmly inside.

The hearing was officially in session.

Brent sat at the defendant's table and presented the judge with the ten-million-dollar wire transfer records and photos of me coming and going from hotels with several different men.

Then he turned to me, pretending he couldn't bear to do it.

"Bella, this was supposed to be a private matter between husband and wife. You're the one who insisted on dragging it into court, so don't blame me for showing no mercy!"

"If your sister knew you were taking her blood money to go have fun with another man, she probably couldn't rest in peace down there!"

I looked at that hypocritical face of his and gave a cold laugh.

"Whether my sister can rest in peace, I'll ask her myself in a moment. But whether your sister can rest in peace, that I really wouldn't know!"

The words had barely left my mouth when a slender, delicate figure rose slowly from the jury box.

"I'm not even dead. So whose blood money exactly did my sister take?"

Brent looked at my sister's young, vibrant face and went rigid all over, his pupils contracting in an instant.

"You're alive?"

"Then who exactly is the one who died?"